








,/\_.™,, 












..." .0*^ ■*;> '--rr.' <s 







Washington and Seventy-six, 



BY 



LUCY E. AND CLARA F. GUERNSEY. 



here shall be a haudful of corn ia the earth upon the top of the mountains j 
T« fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon.— Psalm Ixxii. 16. 



^ 



, iri 




PHILADELPHIA: 
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

No. 1122 Chestnut Street. 



New York : 8 and 10 Bible House, Astoe Place. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by the 

AMEEICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PRESS OF 
HENRY B. ASHMEAD, 

PHILADELPHIA. 



j^-'/'gl?^ 



OOI^TEISTTS 



CHAPTER. PAGE. 

I. The Eaely Life of Washingtox, ... 9 

II. Washington's Boyhood, 18 

III. Entry into Public Life, 28 

IV. Beaddock's Defeat, ...... 44 

V. The Taking of Fort Duquesne— Washing- 
ton's Marriage, 72 

VI. Life at Mount Vernon— Beginning of the 

War, 89 

VII. The Army before Boston, . . . .124 

VIII. Washington's Arrival at New York— Con- 
dition OF THE City — The Johnsons, . 151 
IX. The Declaration, ...... 1G8 

X. Operations in Canada— Lee's Victories in 

THE South, 1"5 

XI. Washington in New York, . . . .192 
XII. The Battle of Long Island, . . . .213 

XIII. Eetreat from Long Island, . . . .223 

XIV. Eetreat from New York, . . . .231 
XV. Battle of White Plains— Battle on Lake 

Champlain, 258 

XVI. Loss of Fort Washington. — Retreat ■ to 

Neav Jersey, 274 

XVII. Capture of Lee. — Washington on the 

Delaware, 294 

XVIII. The Battle of Trenton, 316 

XIX. The Battle of Princeton, . . . .326 

(V) 



PEEFAOE. 



The authors' first intention was to make this book 
a complete life of Washington. It was, however, found 
impossible to execute such a plan in a limited space 
without making the book a mere dry compendium of 
dates and events. They preferred, therefore, only to 
carry the story of the Republic and her great leader 
through the year 1776. Should the book be so fortun- 
ate as to interest those for whom it is written, it may be 
followed by other volumes. The story of our Revolu- 
tionary War is a history of endurance rather than of 
brilliant achievements and great successes. In read- 
ing the tale, especially as it is told by British his- 
torians, it seems as if the American cause had been 
saved almost as by a series of miracles, preserved in 
weakness, poverty, disunited councils, almost every 
possible misfortune, as if especially that this Nation 
might know that " the Lord, he is God," and that 
" there is none else beside Him." 

Would that in this year, when we count up our 
gains and losses, the Nation, unlike the Pagan chief 

(vii) 



•Viil PREFACE. 

who of old " made liis own right hand his god," might 
say, with humble and steadfast heart, " And now, be- 
hold I have brought the first-fruits of the land, which 
thou, O Lord, hast given me." 

L. E. G. 
C. F. G. 



WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE EARLY LIFE OF WASHINGTON. 

IN the year 1732 a quiet country gentleman was 
living at Bridges Creek, Westmoreland county, 
Virginia. 

His grandfather had emigrated from England in 
1657. The house in which he lived was a plain flirm- 
house, with a high roof, sloping into low eaves, which 
probably formed a sort of rude verandah. At each 
end was an immense stone chimney. There were four 
rooms below and some chambers above. The house 
was a comfortable one for the time and place, and 
commanded a fine view of the Potomac River and 
the Maryland shore. The name of its owner was 
Augustine Washington. 

On the 22d of February, 1732, a son was born to 
Mr. Washington, who was then living with his second 
wife, and the boy was named George. Let us see into 
what kind of a world this same baby boy came. It 
was in many respects very different from the world in 

(9) 



10 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

which we are living to-day. There was not a railroad 
nor a steamboat in existence, nor steam power of any 
kind. Electricity had been known and experimented 
upon to some extent, but nobody thought of using it 
or governing it. If some one had told the very wisest 
philosopher of that day, then busy with his silk rub- 
bers and his glass jars, that the power which he was 
studying would some time be used to send messages 
under the ocean from one part of the globe to another, 
and that in less time than he would require to write 
five lines, he would have thought the prophet a mad- 
man. 

In England, and in some parts of Europe, post 
coaches were used on the great roads, attaining in some 
cases to twelve miles an hour — a rate of travel which 
some old people thought dangerously rapid. A still 
greater speed was reached by those who travelled 
" post," as it was called, that is, by relays of horses, 
which were frequently changed. In America, most 
people travelled on horseback, and ladies made long' 
journeys in this way, riding alone, or with a friend or 
servant, who was usually well armed, for the roads 
were not always safe. 

In England, George the Second was king. He was 
a brave general, rather too fond of fighting, but a tol- 
erable king, as kings went in those days. He had a 
great deal to contend with at home, for the people were 
not fond of him, and there was a large party still 
strongly attached to the exiled family of the Stuarts. 
There had been a rising in favor of the Stuarts in 
1715, and there were signs of another, which, however, 



THE EARLY LIFE OF WASHINGTON. 11 

did not take place for some years — not till 1745. The 
people, on the whole, were perhaps as well off as they 
are now. There were very few manufactures. The 
common people wore homespun woollen and linen 
clothes, and ladies of rank did not disdain to spin fine 
linen thread, to be woven into cloth for household uses 
and handsome table linen. 

The state of manners in country places would now 
be thought rude and barbarous. Cock-fighting and 
bull-baiting were common amusements. The poor 
bull, after being paraded round the town dressed in 
ribbons and finery, was then hunted about the streets 
by savage dogs, and more savage men, till he was just 
ready to drop, when he was at last killed by the 
butchers, who gave the entertainment.* It was not 
the rabble alone who joined in these brutal amuse- 
ments. They were approved and encouraged by the 
higher classes, on the ground that they served to make 
people hardy and manly. There were no Sunday- 
schools, and the education of the lower classes was 
greatly neglected. When, some years afterwards, Mrs. 
Hannah More began to bestir herself to set up schools 
for the training of the daughters of laborers and farm 
hands, she found it necessary to assure some of her 
friends who were alarmed at the dangerous innovation 
that she had no intention of teaching these young per- 
sons to write! 

As I have said, the principal method of fast travel- 

* To a much later period than this bull-baiting continued in 
favor. Mary Howitt says it was practised in her childhood. Its 
abolition was stoutly opposed as a piece of foolish sentimentalism. 



12 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

ling was by coach and by post, and these were not 
always very safe, from the fact that all the great roads, 
especially those leading from London to York and 
Exeter, w^ere infested by highwaymen. These "gen- 
tlemen of the road," as they were often called, were 
mounted on fine horses and wore fine clothes. They 
relieved gentlemen of their money and watches, and 
ladies of their jewels, in the politest manner, but seldom 
shed blood unless when resisted. They usually went 
masked, and it was believed often mingled in the best 
society — dancing with a lady in the evening and taking 
possession of her rings and trinkets next morning. 
Nevertheless, in the eye of law, as in that of the gos- 
pel, these gentlemen robbers w^ere but common thieves, 
and when taken, were hung with as little ceremony as 
the man who had forged a one pound note or the poor 
servant maid who had stolen ten shillings worth of 
lace from her mistress. It seems incredible at this day 
that the law should have held human life so cheap ; 
but it is a fact that, at a much later time, men, women, 
and even young boys and girls, were hung at Tyburn 
for stealing smaller sums than ten shillings. 

In France, Louis the Fifteenth was wearing out the 
remainder of his shameful and useless life, horribly 
afraid of dying, and compromising with his conscience 
and his confessors for his open and scandalous wickedness 
by persecuting Protestants, quartering dragoons upon 
them to oppress them with every sort of exaction and 
cruelty, and sending pastors to the galleys, where they 
were kept chained night and day to the vilest male- 
factors, and commissioning soldiers to fire volley after 



THE EARLY LIFE OF WASHINGTON. 13 

volley into closely-packed congregations of men, women 
and children who had 'committed the crime of meeting 
in desert places to worship God according to their own 
consciences. In the tower of Constancy, well named, 
were women who had been imprisoned ten, twenty, and 
thirty years for the crime of being Protestants and 
reading the Bible in their own tongue.* 

Any Catholic was at liberty to kidnap a Protestant 
child from its parents and carry it to a nunnery or 
monastery, that it might be brought up in the Eoman 
Catholic faith. 

The court revelled in every imaginable luxury, 
while the people starved, or lived on scant allowance of 
the poorest food, lesorting in times of scarcity to boiled 
grass and nettles. 

Any great lord might send a peasant to the galleys 
for keeping pigeons, for killing one of his rabbits that 
were destroying his poor garden, or for marrying his 
daughter without asking his lord's consent.*|" 

* Much interest was felt for these women, and not only Protest- 
ants and foreigners had used their influence to obtain their release, 
but the population of Aigues Morts and many Roman Catholics 
had done what they could to procure their freedom, but the gov- 
ernment and the church were inexorable. 

It is pleasant to know that the Franciscan monks who had 
been sent to convert them, finding all such attempts useless, con- 
tinued their visits in order to secretly bring them clothes, linen, 
food, news from their friends, and to give them such Christian 
consolation as all real disciples of Christ may give each other, 
whatever their names. It is not the only instance in which the 
gray robes of the Franciscan have covered hearts kinder than 
tlie deci'ees of the church. 

t The reader will find a graphic picture of the state of the peo- 
ple in Miss Martineau's '' Peasant and Prince." 



14 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Education was in the hands of the priests, who 
taught the people the rosary and a few prayers, while 
Voltaire and the philosophers were doing their best to 
destroy the Christian religion altogether. From the 
highest to the lowest, superstitions, both new and old, 
were rife, and fortune-tellers, pretended sorcerers, made 
a rich harvest out of the foolish and credulous, both 
ignorant and learned. It was no wonder that in the 
next reign the flood of the Kevolution came and took 
them all away. 

Let us cast a look at America. We must remember 
that there were no United States at that time. There 
were seven English colonies, more or less, closely 
united by neighborhood and common interests. These 
were, Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, New Hamp- 
shire, Delaware, New Jersey and Maine. 

Virginia, the oldest, had been the most unfortunate 
in its first start, but was now holding its own with its 
neighbors, and making a great deal of money from 
the growth and sale of tobacco. The people were a 
good deal scattered on farms and plantations, and there 
were no large cities. All west of the Alleghany moun- 
tains was a wilderness, and settlers were slowly creep- 
ing toward the base of the Blue Kidge. These settlers 
were in constant danger of attack and massacre from 
the Indians, whose natural ferocity was constantly 
stirred up by French agents sent among them from 
Canada. In New York there were but few settlements 
north or west of Albany, though some scattered fami- 
lies had ventured into the Mohawk Valley, led by the 
beauty and richness of the country to dare the peril 



THE EARLY LIFE OF WASHINGTON. 15 

of dangerous neighbors, for all central and western 
New York was held by the Six Nations, the most 
warlike and civilized of all the Indian tribes — the 
only race among them who showed talent for organi- 
zation. 

New York city, formerly called New Amsterdam, 
had been originally a Dutch settlement, but had been 
surrendered to the English in 1669, when its name 
was changed, in compliment to the Duke of York. It 
was considered a promising place, in view of its fine 
situation at the mouth of the Hudson, but could not 
as yet compare with Boston in size, wealth or com- 
merce. Albany was a small and pretty country village, 
with one wide street, lined with substantial gable-ended, 
" crow stepped," mansions, built of brick brought from 
Holland, and owned by the descendants of the first 
Dutch settlers. 

Massachusetts was the oldest and by far the most 
important of the New England States. Boston was a 
large and flourishing city, whose inhabitants emulated 
the luxury and ceremony of the mother country. Both 
ladies and gentlemen, dressed in rich silks and satins, 
put their servants into fine liveries, drove in handsome 
coaches with four horses, and gave grand entertain- 
ments. They were not greatly in favor with the home 
government, on account of their inflexible spirit of in- 
dependence, and they were often engaged in a quarrel 
with their governor on a question of salary. It was 
not that they grudged their money, on the contrary, 
they were disposed to be very liberal, but they chose 
to pay in their own way, and generally to arrange their 



1 6 WA SUING TON AND SE VENT Y- SIX. 

affairs according to their own ideas, without much 
reference to England* 

Education was in a prosperous condition. The col- 
lege at Cambridge had a good number both of teachers 
and professors, and both common and select schools 
abounded through the country. Young ladies belong- 
ing to rich families learned French and music as they 
do now. There were no pianos, and even the harj)si- 
chord had not come into general use. The instrument 
most in favor was the spinet, which was to a modern 
piano what a small melodeon is to one of the best 
organs. Ladies did a great deal of embroidery of all 
sorts, working most wonderful landscapes and flower 
pieces, and "sprigging" gowns and aprons without end. 
The boys went to school in winter, and those in the 
country worked in summer. Those who wdshed to 
learn trades were bound out or apprenticed to trades- 
men, who were responsible for their support, and also 
for giving them a certain amount of education. 

Now and then an enterprising young man "went 
"West," into the wilds of what is now Vermont, or the 
still more dangerous Mohawk Valley. In general the 
people were much on a level — some few very rich, and 
still fewer very poor. 

They raised their own flax and w^ool and made their 
own cloth ; buying now and then a suit of English 
broadcloth, or brocade, or an India chintz, for grand 
occasions. 

A few slaves w^ere held, principally for household 
services, but the slavery was of a very easy kind, for 
the most part. On the whole, the people of New Eng- 



THE EARLY LIFE OF WASHINGTON. 17 

land were perhaps as well off as they have ever been 
since, and except for some trouble arising from the 
currency, and for one fear, which always hung like a 
dark cloud in the background — the fear of Indian in- 
vasion and massacre. True, all the Indians within the 
boundaries of New England had been thoroughly sub- 
jugated ; but Canada swarmed with savages, all more 
or less under French influence, and ready, in case of 
any difficulty between England and France, to fall 
upon the outlying New England settlements and earn 
the favor of their spiritual guides, the Jesuits, by 
bringing home a string of heretic scalps. 

Of the other colonies, Pennsylvania was the largest 
and most prosperous. It had been settled by the 
Friends — or Quakers, as they were called — under the 
leadership of the celebrated William Penn. Philadel- 
phia, the principal city, was growing in size and im- 
portance, and the older Friends already began to com- 
plain of increasing luxury and ostentation. 

Delaware, which had at first been included in Penn's 
grant, had now a separate Assembly, though it was 
under the same governor. The northern and western 
parts of the present State were still covered with woods 
and inhabited by bands of roving Indians. 

The Carolinas had met with many troubles in their 
first settlement, both from internal dissensions and 
Tndian wars. In one of these struggles, the warlike 
nation of the Tuscaroras were driven out of their native 
land, and coming North, joined the confederacy of the 
Five Nations, but at the time we are considering, these 
colonies were quiet and prospering. 
2 



CHAPTER 11. 

Washington's boyhood. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON was one of a large 
family. He had two older brothers, Lawrence 
and Augustine, and three younger, Samuel, John and 
Charles ; two sisters, Elizabeth, commonly called Betgy, t 
and a baby named Mildred, who died in infancy. 
George seems to have been most attached to his two ^y 
half brothers, Lawrence and Augustine. Lawrence, 
the eldest, was sent to England to complete his educa- 
tion. George's first school learning was gained in a 
country district school, kept by a man named Hobby, 
who was also sexton of the church. We are not 
informed of the good man's qualifications, but it is 
not at all probable he could pass an examination for a 
regent's certificate in these days. Nevertheless he 
kept his school to the satisfaction of his employers, and 
taught the boys of Bridges Creek to read, write and 
cipher. George, however, was not dependent upon 
Sexton Hobby for the best part of his education. His 
parents seem to have been people of a good degree of 
cultivation, and still better, of the soundest moral 
principle. 

George learned very early the grand principles of 
education as laid down by the ancient Persians, to 
(18) 



WASHINGTON'S BOYHOOD. 19 

ride, to shoot and to speak the truth. He was from 
the first instructed in the true religion, and taught to 
study the Scriptures. 

When George was seven or eight years old, his oldest 
brother, Lawrence, returned from England. He was 
fourteen years older than George, highly educated, 
and of a manly and adventurous turn of mind. George 
at once conceived a great admiration and affection for 
his "big brother," who seems to have returned the 
little fellow's devotion by a very warm and judicious 
regard. The bond between them continued to be pecu- 
liarly close and warm as long as the elder brother 
lived. 

When Lawrence was about twenty-two, trouble 
broke out between the English and French on one 
side and the Spaniards on the other. The Spaniards 
committed some depredations on English merchant 
ships and stations. Admiral Vernon took the fort of 
Porto Bello, on the Isthmus of Darien. A call was 
made upon the English colonies in America for four 
regiments, which were promptly raised. Lawrence 
Washington, among others, partook of the military 
spirit. He obtained a captain's commission in one of 
the regiments, ajid, under Admiral Vernon, was present 
at the disastrous siege of Carthagena, where his regi- 
ment distinguished itself for its bravery. 

Of course the boys in the Washington neighborhood 
caught the military spirit. Mr. Hobby's school boys 
were formed into companies, and went through the 
usual routine of drill and sham fights. In all these 
martial amusements, George Washington was the 



20 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

acknowledged leader of tlie school, tliougli he some- 
times found a rival in a boy named A¥illiam Hobby. 

The ftither of George Washington died suddenly on 
the 12th of April, 1743, when only forty-nine years 
old. George was absent when his father was taken ill, 
and returned in time only to see him die. 

Mr. Washington divided his very considerable prop- 
erty among his children by will, leaving to Lawrence 
the estate on the Potomac, and to George the house 
and land on the Rappahannock. 

Lawrence married the daughter of the Hon. Wil- 
liam Fairfax, and settled on his estate, which he called 
Mount Vernon, in honor of his late commander. 
George, with the other younger children, was left under 
the guardianship of his mother, who, till they should 
come of age, had also the care of the property. 

Mrs. Washington seems to have been eminently fitted 
for her position. She was a woman of naturally high 
temper and determined spirit, both of which were 
thoroughly under control, with an aptitude for busi- 
ness and a capacity for commanding respect as well as 
affection. She governed her children strictly but 
kindly, exacting from them not only implicit obedi- 
ence, but also the outward forms of respect. Under 
her influence George laid the foundation of those cour- 
teous and somewhat ceremonious manners that after- 
ward proved so useful to him. 

Mrs. Washington was in the daily habit of collect- 
ing her children about her, and reading to them from 
some serious standard book. One of her great favor- 
ites was "Sir Matthew Hale's Contemplations Moral 



WASHINGTON'S BOYHOOD. 21 

and Divine," and her copy of this book, with her name, 
is still preserved among the treasures at Mount Vernon. 
How many of our Sunday-school boys and girls, who 
will have nothing but a story book, and contemptuously 
reject the most interesting history or biography, would 
be content to listen for an hour or two every day to 
such a book as " Matthew Hale's Contemplations," and 
how many mothers are there, who take pains to direct 
their children into good habits and tastes with regard 
to reading ? 

Not very long after his father's death, George was 
sent to reside with Augustine Washington, to enjoy the 
advantages of a better school than Sexton Hobby's. 
This school was kept by a Mr. Williams, who seems to 
have been a superior sort of man. Here George per- 
fected himself in the ordinary studies, and learned 
something of the higher mathematics, particularly sur- 
veying. In those days arithmetical text books were 
not used in the schools as they are at present. The 
teachers gave out the rule and " set the sums " on the 
slate. The pupils worked out the sums and set down 
the rule, and when both had been corrected by the 
master^ they were carefully copied into a " ciphering 
book." 

A good many of George's " cijDhering books " are 
still preserved at Mount Vernon, and are quite patterns 
of neatness and accuracy, though one of them has 
certain rude profiles, perhaps of his schoolmates, and 
some long-tailed birds fldVirishing over the figures. 
George also copied into a book a great variety of mer- 
cantile and legal papers, bills of lading, deeds, notes. 



22 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

and the like. All his life he was remarkable for his 
carefulness in business matters, and his account books, 
both public and private, are noted for their systematic 
accuracy. 

It must not be supposed that Greorge was wanting in 
the spirit proper to his age. On the contrary, he was 
fond of all sorts of play, especially such *as involved 
strength aud dexterity. He excelled in running, 
wrestling, pitching quoits and climbing, and is said to 
have been remarkably dexterous in throwing stones. 
A place is still shown at Fredericksburg where he 
threw a stone across the Kappahannock. He was also 
an excellent shot, and very fond of riding horses of 
which other people were afraid. 

This propensity led him into the most serious scrape 
of his boyhood of which we have any account. 

His mother had a fine sorrel colt, valuable for its 
beauty and high blood, but so spirited and vicious that 
no one had been able to break him. George, however, 
determined to make the attempt. One morning early, 
having secured the assistance of several of his school- 
mates, he drove the colt into a corner of the field, and 
succeeded in springing upon his back. The sorrel 
plunged and reared, and tried all his powers to unseat 
his rider, but in vain. The contest soon became alarm- 
ing to the lookers-on. George's naturally high and 
imperious temper was roused. He was determined to 
conquer, and the sorrel was equally resolved not to be 
overcome. At last, in the ftiidst of a furious struggle, 
the colt broke a blood vessel and dropped dead. 

We can imagine the grief of the boys when they saw 




Taming the Oolt. 



p. 22. 



WASHINGTON'S BOYHOOD. 23 

the beautiful willful creature, lately so full of life, lying 
dead before them. It must have been peculiarly dis- 
tressing to George, not only because he was the one 
most in fault, but because he was unusually tender- 
hearted, and also because he knew the grief his mother 
would feel at the loss of her pet. 

" Who w^as to tell Mrs. Washington ?" was the ques- 
tion, and, in the midst of their consultation, they were 
interrupted by a call to breakfast. The breakfast was 
doubtless an excellent one, but I question whether the 
boys were able to do justice to the fried chicken, corn 
cake and other dainties, which probably formed part 
of the meal. Presently came the dreaded question, 

" Well, young gentlemen, have you seen my sorrel 
colt in your rambles ?" 

There was a pause, and then George answered : 

" Your sorrel colt is dead, mother." 

She asked what killed him. George gave a short 
and true account of the matter. Mrs. Washington no 
doubt thought that the grief of the boy was punish- 
ment enough for what was, after all, an accident. She 
was silent for a moment, and then answered gently : 

" While I am very sorry for the death of my colt, I 
rejoice in my son, who always speaks the truth." 

The example of his mother, in governing her natu- 
rally vehement temper, was not lost upon Washington. 
,He early became remarkable for his strict self-control 
and his high sense of justice. We are told that he was 
a sort of umpire in the school, appealed to in all dis- 
putes, and usually giving satisfaction by his decisions. 
To use the words of Mr. Irving : " As he had formerly 



24 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

been military chieftain, he was now legislator of the 
school, thus displaying in boyhood the type of the 
future man." 

At Mount Vernon, George was introduced to the 
best society the country afforded, and his natural dis- 
position profited by the opportunities he enjoyed. 

Lawrence Washington had married the daughter of 
the Hon. William Fairfax, an English gentleman, who, 
after serving with credit in the English army, and 
assisting in clearing out the nest of pirates at New 
Providence, was made governor of that island. He 
had now resided some years in Virginia, employed in 
the care of the estates of his cousin. Lord Fairfax. 
Mr. Fairfax was a gentleman in the best sense of that 
much-abused word. He was greatly interested in 
George, and frequently invited him to his house. Mr. 
Fairfax lived at Belvoir, a beautiful place on the banks 
of the Potomac. He had a large family of sons and 
daughters, and entertained a great deal of company. 
It Avas about this time that George compiled his code 
of rules for the formation of morals and manners. 
While we smile at the formality of some of them, as 
applied to himself by a lad of fourteen, w^e must admit 
that a better code of rules could hardly be desired.* 

Influences were brought to bear on George in the 
house of Mr. Fairfax which came near to altering not 
only his own destiny, but that of a great many other_ 
people. 

It w^as no uncommon thing for an English ship of 
war to drop her anchor in the Potomac for a few days 
"-•• See the Appendix to this volume. 



WASHINGTON'S BOYHOOD. 25 

or weeks, in which case the officers were always hospit- 
ably entertained at Belvoir. Mr. Fairfax and Colonel 
AVashington often met among these officers their old 
companions in arms, in which case they would spend 
hours in recounting their former exploits. We can 
imagine George sitting silent and attentive, while the 
old soldiers and sailors talked of the capture of Porto 
Bello and the repulse from Carthagena, of desperate 
encounters with West India pirates, of storms and 
shipwreck and yellow fever. Sailors are proverbially 
good-natured, and the officers of the Terror or of the 
Thunder, as the case might be, would naturally be 
interested in their young auditor, and he was probably 
often invited on shipboard. Under these circumstances, 
it is no wonder that George should conceive a strong 
desire to go to sea. There seemed no reasonable objec- 
tion. The profession was an honorable one. The boy 
was of a suitable age and disposition. A midshipman's 
warrant was obtained for him, and it is said that his 
trunk w^as actually on board a ship of war, lying in 
the Potomac, when the mother's heart failed her. 
George was the oldest and the most promising of her 
children. She could not bear the thought of giving 
him up, and for once her feelings overcame her. She 
made an earnest remonstrance. George yielded, gave 
up his warrant, and quietly returned to school at 
Bridges Creek. 

No doubt the disappointment was a great one, but it 
was borne with a good grace. George went to work 
harder than ever, studying mathematics, and especially 
laboriug to perfect himself as a practical surveyor. 



26 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY- SIX. 

The profession of surveying, which is one of the most 
useful in a new country, requires not only that the 
person who attempts it should study, but also that he 
should put his knowledge into practice as he goes on. 
" It is by sj)eaking French that one learns to speak it," 
said an admirable teacher of that language ; and it is 
only by surveying that one learns to survey. In this 
w^ay George Wash ngton learned his profession. He 
made careful surveys of all the fields and farms in his 
neighborhood, entering the results in his " field books." 
Many of these books still exist, " and," says Mr. Irving, 
" are as neat and exact as if the whole related to real 
transactions, instead of being mere school exercises." 
In his early years, Washington had already acquired 
that habit of exactness and care which made him so 
fit for the great place he filled in after life. 

Washington, however, had his own troubles at this 
time. From his own handwriting, we have evidence 
that he had conceived an affection for some young 
lady who did not at all return the feeling. She very 
likely regarded him as the boy that he was. 

An old lady, who knew him well in his youth, said 
that he was " a very bashful young man," and that she 
" often wished he would talk more." 

This early romance of Washington seems to have 
lasted longer than the usual fancies of fifteen, and 
while it did last, it made him seriously unhappy. It 
does not appear that he ever made his feelings known 
to the lady, but, after the custom of lovers of those days 
and later days, he wrote verses, and very bad verses 
they were, which still remain in the waste pages of his 



WASHINGTON'S BOYHOOD. ■ 27 

early journals, to prove that the sedate and dignified 
Washington had a vein of romance in his nature. 

This fancy, however, did not interfere with his 
work. When he left school, at the age of sixteen, he 
was already capable of taking charge of a surveying 
party, and running out lines through the wildest 
country. He had also acquired a character for steadi- 
ness, hardihood, uprightness and good breeding. 

His frame, always strong and robust, had been hard- 
ened and strengthened by manly exercises. He could 
ride with the boldest, shoot, and handle a boat. His 
bare word was respected by every one. At sixteen he 
was a man. 



CHAPTER IIL 

ENTRY INTO PUBLIC LIFE. 

AMONG other friends whom Washington had 
made during his visit to Mount Vernon was 
Lord Fairfax, the cousin of William Fairfax, and 
owner of the immense estate to which William was 
agent. The habits of Lord Fairfax were somewhat 
eccentric, but he was a good and kind-hearted man. 
An early disappointment of a very cruel and bitter 
kind had broken up a career which promised to be 
both useful and brilliant, and had made him shy and 
averse to general society. He had been engaged to a 
young lady of rank, the wedding day was actually 
fixed, and the dresses prepared, when suddenly the 
lady broke her promise and married for a ducal 
coronet. Lord Fairfax withdrew almost entirely from 
society, and after making a voyage to Virginia, in 
1739, resolved to settle there permanently. 

He inherited from his mother vast landed estates 
lying between the Potomac and Rappahannock, and 
running back so as to take in a large part of the 
beautiful and fertile Shenandoah Valley. A great 
part of this domain was unknown wilderness, but 
settlers had already been attracted by the mild climate 
and the fertility of the soil. 
(28) 



ENTRY INTO PUBLIC LIFE. 29 

The attention of the old nobleman, accustomed to 
judge of men, was soon arrested by young Washing- 
ton. He himself was exceedingly fond of field sjiorts, 
especially fox-hunting, for which the region about 
Belvoir afforded an excellent opjDortunity. He soon 
began to make George his companion in his hunting 
excursions, and taught him to be as fond of the sport 
as he was himself. 

Washington found himself in very pleasant society, 
as the son of William Fairfax had recently brought 
home a bride, and with the bride her sister. Miss 
Cai^y, whom Washington admired greatly, but who 
reminded him of his " lowland beauty," as he calls the 
object of his early passion. Though in his letters to 
two young friends, whom he calls Robin and Sallie, 
he still speaks of his " melancholy," it is evident that, 
what with the society of the young ladies and with 
fox-hunting Lord Fairfax, the young gentleman was 
having what a modern youth would call " a very good 
time." 

Lord Fairfax learned to know and to esteem his 
young friend, and at last reposed in him an important 
trust for one so young. As I have said, the lands of 
Lord Fairfax were beginning to attract the notice of 
emigrants, and squatters, as they were called, were 
taking possession of the best tracts and most promising 
situations. 

It was necessary that the lands should be explored 
and surveyed by some trusty and skillful person, and 
Lord Fairfax pitched upon George Washington. The 
proposition was too much after the young man's own 



30 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

heart not to be eagerly accepted, and in a few days 
the young surveyor, accompanied by Mr. George 
William Fairfax, set out for the wilderness. It would 
be interesting, if our limits permitted, to follow the steps 
of the youthful explorer through his expedition. At 
that time he was just sixteen. There are ample mate- 
rials for doing so, as Washington was accustomed to 
keep a minute journal — a very desirable habit, by the 
way. He tells us how he and his companions forded 
rivers, camped out in the wilderness, or shared the 
shelter of some settler's hut, " lying on the floor," as 
he tells us, with man, wife and children, like dogs and 
cats, " and happy he who had the berth next the fire." 
On one occasion, being detained by the swollen 
waters of the Potomac, they whiled away the time by 
an excursion to the Warm Springs, since known as 
the Berkely Springs. At another time, while they 
were detained by stress of weather at the house of 
Colonel Cresap, a Jioted woodsman and Indian fighter, 
they had a visit from a war party of thirty Indians, 
who had a fresh scalp in their possession. These 
warriors were in high good humor over their horrid 
prize, and treated their entertainers to a scalp dance 
in the most approved style — an exhibition which 
seems to have been new to Washington, who carefully 
noted down all the particulars in his journal. The 
surveying party was followed by numbers of people, 
mostly German emigrants, desirous of buying land. 
Washington says they were unable to speak any lan- 
guage but their own, but were very merry and cour- 
ageous. A good many of them afterwards fell victims 



ENTRY INTO PUBLIC LIFE. 31 

to the Indian raids wliich took place some time later, 
but the descendants of others are living in the Shenan- 
doah valley to this day. 

Having completed his surveys, after a month's ao- 
sence, AVashington returned to Mount Vernon. By 
reference to his books, we find that he received from 
seven to ten dollars a day. Lord Fairfax was well 
pleased with the way in which his young friend had 
acquitted himself, and used his influence to have him 
appointed public surveyor, which office he held for 
three years. 

Many of his surveys still remain recorded in the 
county offices, and are considered as the highest 
authority wherever they are found. During his sur- 
veys and explorations he was frequently a visitor at 
Greenway Court, a house which Lord Fairfax owned, 
about twelve miles from the present town of Winches- 
ter. Lord Fairfax intended to build a fine manor 
house upon this site, but the intention was never 
carried out, and he resided till his death in the rough 
stone house in which his agent had lived ; here he had 
his horses and hounds, his black servants and other 
retainers, and here he kept open house for all comers. 
The house was standing, but in a ruinous condition, 
when Mr. Irving visited it some years ago. 

Meanwhile a new field was opening for the exercise 
of Washington's talents. 

In 1673 Father Marquette, with his companion. 
Father Joliet, both Jesuit missionaries, had travelled 
down the Mississippi as far as the Arkansas. They 
were probably the first white persons who had done so, 



32 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

aud on that account were said to gain for the French 
king, by rights of discovery, not only the Mississippi, 
but all the rivers running into it. The Ohio, with all 
its branches, was one of these rivers, and thus the 
French king's claim covered a large portion of what 
is now the United States. 

The English, on their part, were in nowise disposed 
to submit to these claims. They opposed to the French 
a counter claim founded on a treaty made with the 
Indians in 1741, at Lancaster, whereby the latter 
gave up all right and title to all lands from the Alle- 
ghany mountains to the Mississippi river. It was no 
great gift, seeing that they did not own a single foot 
of the ground at the time, but according to their tradi- 
tions, their ancestors ' had conquered it in times past ; 
therefore they asserted it was still their rightful prop- 
erty. One claim was, in point of fact, quite as reason- 
able (or as unreasonable) as the other, but neither side 
had as yet made any important step toward taking 
possession of the land in question. The vast tract was 
roamed over by bands of Indians, mostly offshoots from 
the great Iroquois Nation, and therefore as brave and 
fierce as any on the continent. Now Tind then a Jesuit 
missionary would try to make converts among them, 
generally with very indifferent success. The French 
professed to hold the Indians under their protection, 
aud the Indians were disposed to be friendly toward 
their protectors, and did not take the scalps of their 
spiritual fathers unless it was very hard to come by 
those of other people. 

Another sort of missionaries were more highly 



ENTRY INTO PUBLIC LIFE. 33 

appreciated by the Indians. These were the Indian 
traders, mostly from Pennsylvania, who came among 
them with pack-horses laden with knives and other 
hardware, beads, finery, sugar, tobacco and rum, which 
were exchanged for furs and skins. These traders 
were welcome to the Indians, wdio depended upon 
them for their supplies of guns and ammunition. The 
appearance of the traders was the signal for general 
festivity, usually concluding with a grand drinking 
bout. When his goods were all disposed of, the trader 
took his way homeward laden with valuable furs, 
wdiich he sold, at a great profit, in Philadelphia. 

In 1749 an association was formed called the " Ohio 
Company," to which was granted five hundred tliou- 
sand acres of land between the Monongahela and 
Kanawha rivers. The company were to pay no rent 
for seven years, but they were under bonds to settle 
one hundred families upon them within that time, and 
to build a fort for protection against the Indians. 
The grant was obtained by Mr. John Hanbury, a 
wealthy merchant of London. Mr. Thomas Lee, presi- 
dent of the council of Virginia, and Lawrence and 
Augustine Washington, were among the leading mem- 
bers of the association. Goods were brought out from 
London for the purpose of trading with the Indians, 
presents were made to the great chiefs, and everything 
seemed to be in a prosperous train. 

The French, however, were not inclined to give up 
their claim. They also sent their agent among the 
Indians, who distributed presents in his turn, made 
speeches, and warned off* the Pennsylvania traders. 



34 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

He also uailed to the trees and buried in tlie ground 
leaden plates bearing inscriptions to the purport that 
all lands in that neighborhood belonged to the King 
of France. " The Indians," says Mr. Irving, " gazed 
at these plates with wondering eyes, but surmised their 
purport;" and he might have added that most of 
these same leaden plates were doubtless converted into 
bullets and trinkets as soon as the Frenchman's back 
was turned. 

After much diplomacy on both sides, after emissa- 
ries had been sent to the Indians from both French 
and English, after numberless speeches made and belts 
of wampum exchanged, the English determined to 
persevere, and sent Mr. Gist, an old pioneer, and much 
accustomed to dealing with the Indians, to survey the 
lands of the Ohio Company on the south side of the 
Ohio. While he was thus engaged, an old Delaware 
Indian asked him a very pertinent question : 

" The French," he said, " claim all the land on the 
one side of the Ohio, and the English claim all on the 
other side. Now, where does the Indians' land lie?" 

We are not informed how the old surveyor answered 
this riddle, but he went on with his survey all the same. 
Meantime the French began to make hostile prepa- 
rations. They built an armed vessel on the lakes, 
fortified their trading posts already existing, and es- 
tablished others. The colonies on their part were not 
backward. They raised companies, provided ammu- 
nition of all sorts, and prepared to defend their claims. 
Lawrence Washington sought and obtained for his 
brother the place of adjutant-general. 



ENTRY INTO rUBLIC LIFE. 35 

The young officer had command of a military dis- 
trict, with the title of major, and his business was to 
attend to the raising and disciiolinc of militia compa- 
nies. Washington at once set himself to work to learn 
the duties of his new position. He studied military 
tactics, apparently with the same sober earnestness 
with which he had applied himself to surveying, and 
took lessons in the sword exercise of one Captain 
Jacob Van Braam, a Dutchman. 

But his military duties met with a sad interruption. 
His brother Lawrence, always delicate in constitution, 
showed decided symptoms of consumption. George 
at once abandoned everything else and devoted him- 
self to the care of Lawrence. The two brothers went 
to Barbadoes, where George seems to have been chiefly 
struck by the beauty of the trees, the amazing variety 
of the fruits, and the astonishingly bad management of 
the planters, wdio, with th3 most productive estates in 
the world, kept themselves constantly in debt and em- 
barrassment by their extravagance. Lawrence spent 
the winter in Barbadoes, but did not receive the benefit 
which his friends had ho^Ded. In the spring he sailed 
to Bermuda, but all was in vain. He grew rapidly 
worse, and came home in July only in time to die. 
He seems to have been a most admirable man, and 
his death at the early age of thirty-four was univer- 
sally lamented. He left a wife and one infant daughter. 
In case of the child's death, the estate of Mount Vernon 
was to belong to the widow for her life, and then to 
descend to George, who was appointed one of the 
executors of the will. George was very young for 



36 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

such a trust ; but he fulfilled it to the satisfaction of 
every one, and soon had the whole business of the 
estate on his hands. 

Meantime the disputes with the French still con- 
tinued. The Indians, upon the whole, were disposed 
to resent the aggressions of the French and to side 
with the English ; but, as usual, they were divided 
among themselves. A portion of them favored the 
French. It was reported that the latter were ascend- 
ing the Mississippi, and that they meant to establish 
a chain of forts from Louisiana to Canada. The Ohio 
Company complained loudly to Governor Dinwiddie 
of Virginia, who was himself one of the stockholders. 
It was decided to send an envoy to the French com- 
mander on the Ohio to represent these aggressions, 
and Captain William Grant was selected for that pur- 
pose. He does not seem to have been very well fitted 
for the business which he undertook, for finding that 
the French had gained some advantages, and that 
matters upon the frontier looked decidedly threatening, 
he abandoned the expedition and hastily returned home. 

Governor Dinwiddie now looked about him for 
another messenger, and this time his choice fell upon 
George Washington. 

The choice was approved by all concerned. George 
Washington was only twenty-two years of age; but 
he had already acquired a character for steadiness and 
bravery. He was used to woodcraft ; he was well ac- 
quainted with the matter in dispute, and his temper 
and habits of mind were admirably suited to dealing 
with the Indians. 



ENTRY INTO PUBLIC LIFE. 37 

He was directed to repair to Logstowu, one of the 
principal Indian settlements, and there to pnt himself 
in communication with those chiefs who were favor- 
able to the English, to obtain an escort from them to 
the French commander, deliver his letters, and return 
home as quickly as possible. 

Did our space permit, it would be interesting to fol- 
low Washington through all his adveutures.* AVash- 
ington set out on the 30th of October, 1753. At 
Wills' Creek he met by appointment with Mr. Gist, 
the old surveyor and pioneer. His other companions 
were Captain Van Braam, an Indian interpreter, 
named John Davison, and four experienced frontiers- 
men. They went down to the confluence of the Alle- 
ghany and Monongahela, where the town of Pittsburgh 
now stands. Washington at once perceived the ad- 
vantages of the situation as a military post, and the 
French engineers afterwards confirmed his opinion by 
building upon that spot a fortress which they called 
Fort Duquesne. 

In this neighborhood lived the chief sachem of the 
Delawares, whom Washington visited, and invited him 
to attend the council at Logstown, where the chief 
known as the Half King resided, with several other 
distinguished warriors. 

After some days of delay and diplomacy, the chiefs 
were assembled, and at last it was agreed that the 

"•■' Those who wish to obtain a fuller account of this period of 
Washington's life will find many particulars in Irving's biog- 
raphy, Marshall's Washington, and in his own papers edited by 
Sparks. 



38 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

alliances and treaties made with the French should 
be cancelled, and that three of the chiefs, including 
the Half King, should accompany Washington on his 
mission to the French commandant. 

On the 30th of November, Washington, with his 
Indian escort, set out for Venango. There he met 
Caj^tain Joncaire, who called himself the commandant, 
on the Ohio ; but being told of the nature of the busi- 
ness, he informed Washington that there was a general 
officer stationed at the next fort, and advised him to 
carry his letter thither. 

Captain Joncaire entertained the party hospitably — 
too hospitably for his own good. It is no uncommon 
thing for a man who digs a pit for his neighbor to fall 
into it himself, and so it proved with Captain Joncaire. 
In attempting to make his guests tipsy he became very 
much so himself, and let out a good deal which he did 
not mean to tell. Washington took careful note of 
all that fell from his host. 

The Indians, however, fell into the snare, and were 
made frantically drunk, and it was with difficulty that 
Washington got them away from the dangerous neigh- 
borhood. 

They set out at last, accompanied by a French com- 
missary named La Force, and after four days of hard 
travel the party reached the fort at French Creek. 
Here they were received with great civility, but ob- 
tained very little satisfaction. They were detained a 
number of days, during which time Washington satis- 
fied himself that nothing was to be expected but 
treachery and hostility. Every influence was used to 



ENTRY INTO PUBLIC LIFE. 39 

detach the Indian chiefs from the English envoy, but 
the influence of Washington prevailed. 

At last, on the 16th of December, Washington re- 
ceived an answer to the Governor's letter and started 
for home. The journey was a severe one; the snow 
was deep, the streams swollen and the weather very 
cold. The poor horses travelled more and more slowly, 
and at last Washington, weary with his delay, resolved 
to proceed on foot. He accordingly put Captain Van 
Braam in command of the party, while he and Mr. 
Gist strapped their packs on their backs and set out 
to walk home through the wilderness. 

The next day they reached a place with the sinister 
name of "Murdering-toAvn," the scene probably of 
some now forgotten tragedy. From here Washington 
intended to strike through the woods to Shannopin's- 
town, two or three miles al)ove the forks of the Ohio. 
There he hoi)ed to })e able to cross the Alleghany 
River on the ice. 

At Murdering-town, however, was a party of Indians, 
who seemed to have been waiting there to meet the 
travellers. One of them expressed himself iiuifli de- 
lighted at meeting Mr. Gist. " The old woodsmnn 
thought he had seen the man with Jonnaire. H ' 
knew that if such was the case the party must be in 
the French interest, and he suspected an nmbush. 
The Indian asked a great many questions : " WIkmi 
did they l^ave Venango, where had they left their 
hor>;es, and v»^hen was the rest of the party coming?" 
All tliose questions made Gist the more suspicious, 
and he was very roserv m1 in liis answers. 



40 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

The travellers knew nothing of the route to Shan- 
nopin's-town, only that it lay through the deep woods. 
After some consultation, however, they resolved to 
run the risk of taking one of the Indians for a guide. 
The man was very willing to go, and was so obliging 
as to carry Washington's pack. After a brisk walk 
of eight or ten miles, Washington, who had undergone 
great fatigue the day before, proposed to stop and light 
a fire. The guide, however, objected, but offered if 
Washington were so weary to carry his gun ; but 
Washington w^as too old a woodsman to part with his 
weapon. 

The Indian declared that there were Ottawas in the 
woods, and that it would be dangerous to light a fire, 
as it would be likely to discover them to the Ottawas, 
by whom they might be surprised and scalped. He 
urged them to come to his own cabin a little farther 
on, where they would be safe. 

They followed him for some distance, when the 
guide, after listening for a moment, declared that he 
heard the report of a gun in the direction of his cabin, 
and turned his steps more to the northward. Wash- 
ington thought he was being led into an ambuscade, 
and both he and Gist were upon their guard. 

The Indian still kept on to the north, saying that 
he had heard two whoops, signals from his cabin, and 
that now they had but a little farther to go. 

At length they came to an opening in the woods, 
and coming out from the shadow of the trees, found 
themselves in an open meadow, where the full light 
fell ujion the snow. 



ENTRY INTO PUBLIC LIFE. 41 

On the instant the guide, who was about fiCtceu 
paces in front, turned and fired at Washington ; but 
the bullet missed its mark, and neither Washington 
nor Gist were wounded. 

The Indian, after firing, took refuge behind a large 
white oak to reload ; but before he could fire again he 
was seized by Washington and Gist. Gist would have 
put the guide to death on the spot, but Washington 
overruled him. 

They allowed him to finish loading his gun, but 
took the weapon from him, and obliged him to make 
the camp fire, while the two white men kept watch 
over the guns. Gist, who probably did not think the 
life of an Indian of any great consequence, thought 
that the safer course would be to kill him then and 
there; but giving way to the scruples of his young 
commander, he observed that if the man was not to 
be killed they must manage to send him ofi*, and then 
leave the neighborhood with all speed. He entered 
into conversation with the Indian, and pretended to 
think that the firing of the gun had been merely a 
signal to his cabin, and that it was out of the question 
that he had had any evil intentions. 

The guide, although he could not have thought that 
the old woodsman had been so blind as he pretended, 
was equally polite and diplomatic, and at once en- 
dorsed Gist's opinion that the gun levelled at Wash- 
ington's head had been a harmless w^arning to his own 
squaw. He said that he now knew the way to his 
cabin, Avhich was near by. 

Gist told him that he might go home then, but that 



42 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

as lie and Washington were tired, they would stay 
where they were and follow him in the morning, and 
that he must have some meat ready. He then gave 
the guide a cake of bread, and the Indian went away 
probably even more surprised than Gist at the scruples 
of the young gentleman from Virginia. 

Gist tracked him for some distance and then re- 
turned to Washington. They left their fire burning 
and pushed on, travelling by their compass all night, 
in order to have the start of those who were very 
likely to pursue them. 

Continuing their march next day, they did not pause 
till nightfall, when they reached the Alleghany, about 
two miles above Shannopin's-town. Their dangers, 
however, were not past. 

The river was not frozen over, but it was full of 
floating ice and seemed impassable. Next day they 
determined to build a raft. Their only tool was an 
axe, and not a very good one at that ; but after a 
day's hard work they succeeded in constructing their 
raft, which they launched into the midst of the floating 
ice, using what are called setting-poles to direct its 
course. When they were half way over, Washington 
was jerked from the raft into the midst of the ice and 
water, and with difficulty escaped drowning. 

With all their exertions, they found it impossible 
either to advance or return, but succeeded in gaining 
an island in the middle of the river,* where they 

••■This island is known as "Washington's Island. It is two 
or three miles above Pittsburgh, just opposite the Arsenal." — 
LossiNG. 




On the RaCt. 



p. 42. 



ENTRY INTO PUBLIC LIFE. 43 

passed the night miserably enough, and such ^vas the 
cold that Gist had his hands and feet frozen. 

In the morning the travellers, to their great joy, 
found the ice so closely packed that they were able 
to cross on foot to the farther shore, where they found 
a comfortable lodging in the house of Mr. Frazier, an 
Indian trader. 

Here they remained several days, and Washington 
took occasion to make a call on a lady. This was no 
less a person than Aliquippa, a famous squaw chief, 
who lived some miles away. 

This lady's dignity had been sorely hurt that Wash- 
ington and his party had passed without calling ui)on 
her ; but she was easily appeased by the polite atten- 
tions of the young officer and by the present of the 
old military coat which AYashington had worn on his 
travel's through the woods, and which one would 
hardly suppose could by tha4i time have been much 
of an ornament to a lady's wardrobe. 

On the 6th of January, Washington arrived at 
Williamsburg, where he delivered the letter of the 
French commandant to Governor Dinwiddle and made 
a full report of his expedition. 

The manner in which Washington had acquitted 
himself, the good sense, bravery and firmness which 
he had shown under very trying and difficult circum- 
stances, pointed him out to the Governor and the 
public as a man fit for places of trust, whether military 
or civil. 



CHAPTER IV. 

braddock's defeat. 

As might have been expected, the French com- 
mander's letter was altogether unsatisfactory. It 
was very polite and abounded in praise of Mr. Wash- 
ington, but declared the commandant's intention to 
sustain the claims of his master, the French king, as 
was indeed no more than his duty. The letter and the 
account Washington gave of what he had seen and 
heard proved clearly that the French were in earnest — 
that they would probably descend the Ohio and' take 
possession of the country as soon as possible. Captain 
Trent was sent out to raise a band of men and to finish 
the fort which the Ohio Company had begun. It was 
a singular choice of a commander on the part of the 
Governor, and turned out as might have been expected. 
Washington was also empowered to raise a company. 
Governor Dinwiddle bestirred himself to make alliances 
with the Indians, to rouse the colonies in general to 
united action, and to obtain money and supplies from 
the House of Burgesses in Virginia. He was not very 
successful in either attempt. The Indians rendered 
very little active service. The colonies were afraid of 
being drawn into a war for which they might be blamed 
in England, and the House of Burgesses showed what 
(44) 



BRADDOCICS DEFEAT. 45 

the Governoi' termed " a disloyal French spirit," asking 
inconvenient questions, raising doubts of the justice of 
the war, and when they did at last vote the sum of ten 
thousand pounds, appointing a committee to confer 
with the Governor as to its application. 

The Governor considered himself deeply ill-used, but 
there was no help for it, and he revenged himself by 
complaining to the authorities at home of the republi- 
can spirit of the people, which he feared "would ren- 
der them more and more difficult to be brought to 
order." 

Governor Dinwiddle ordered three hundred men 
to be enlisted and divided into six companies. The 
command of the whole force was offered to Washing- 
ton, who, however, with his usual modesty, thought 
himself too young and too inexperienced in military 
aifairs to accept the chief command. 

He was made lieutenant-colonel under Mr. Joshua 
Fry, an English gentleman of worth and position. 
After many delays and difficulties, Washington re- 
cruited his company and set out for the border. The 
march through the wilderness was severe in the ex- 
treme, as Washington and his men had to prepare 
roads for Colonel Fry, who was following with the 
artillery. They had expected that Trent would have 
pack horses waiting them at Wills' Creek, so that the 
rest of the march could be made in light order, but 
before they reached the creek they were met by the 
alarming news that Trent and his whole company had 
fallen into the hands of the French. 

Trent, however, was found safe and sound at AVills' 



46 WA SIHNG TON A ND SF VENTY-SIX. 

Creek, having left his men at work on the fort, under 
connnand of Frazier, who, from a gunsmith and trader, 
had turned his attention to the less profitable trade of 
a soldier. Washington, greatly alarmed, wished to 
press on to ascertain the truth of the report ; but Trent, 
inefficient as usual, had forgotten to send the pack 
horses, and without them it was impossible to go on. 

While Washington waited for the horses and wagons, 
for which he Avas obliged to send forty miles, to Win- 
chester, Captain Trent's company arrived, bringing 
with them their working tools. 

After Trent's departure, Frazier had gone home, 
leaving the party under command of a young ensign, 
and while both these officers were absent, Captain Con- 
trecoeur made his appearance before the half-finished 
fort with a thousand men and several field pieces. 
The young ensign could do nothing but surrender, and 
obtained from the French only permission to carry 
home his men with their axes, spades and other tools, 
the arms being left behind. The French leader asked the 
young officer to sup with him, and treated him with great 
civility, and as he had promised, he dismissed the party 
next morning, politely wishing them a pleasant journey. 

The ensign was accompanied by two of the old Half 
King's warriors, who renewed his promises of friend- 
ship to the English and claimed their assistance. 

Washington despatched one of the warriors to Gov- 
ernor Dinwiddle, and sent back the other with a mes- 
sage to the Half King inviting him, with other chiefs 
of the Six Nations, to meet him on the road as soon as 
possible and hold a council. Washington was now in 



im AD DOCKS DEFEAT. 47 

a critical position. He wad iu the midst of the wil- 
derness Avith a small body of men, most of whom had 
never seen service, and with a French and Indian 
force of unknown strength before him. It would not 
do to fall back, and yet it was dangerous to go on. A 
council was called, and it was decided to push i'orward 
as far as the Ohio Company's storehouses on Redstone 
Creek, fortify themselves and send for help. 

On the 29th of April, AVashington set out for Wills' 
Creek with a hundred and sixty men, expecting to be 
followed by the artillery and the soldiers for which he 
had sent back to Governor Dinwiddle. He knew that 
the Assembly of Pennsylvania was in session, and that 
that of Maryland would meet in a few days, and he 
WTote directly to the governors of both colonies, en- 
deavoring to rouse them to action in a cause which 
was quite as much their ow^n as it was Virginia's. 
There was a disagreement, however, between the 
assemblies and their governors, and no help came 
from either colony. 

Trent's men, instead of waiting for Fry's force, as 
they had been ordered, dispersed to their homes, and 
in his manifold annoyances Washington had specimens 
of the troubles which in after life he was to experience 
on a wider scale. As his march continued, he was met 
with more and more gloomy accounts from the fron- 
tier. The French were in great force. They were buy- 
ing the favor of all the Indian tribes. Worst of all, they 
were building a fort on the point of ground which 
Washington had marked as so suitable for the purjiose. 
There was, however, one piece of good news. The 



48 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Half King was on his way to meet the English with 
fifty warriors. 

After a most wearisome march, the little company 
arrived at the Youghiogheny River, and as they were 
obliged to build a bridge to cross it, they were delayed 
some days, and from this place Washington wrote to 
Governor Dinwiddle. 

Through that penny wisdom and pound foolishness 
which governments too often exercise, the pay of the 
provincial officers was less than that received by the 
regular army. The regulars furnished their own 
table, but such was their pay that they were able to 
procure all sorts of luxuries, while the provincial 
officers who had left their homes at such inconvenience 
to themselves and their families, did duty on water, 
hard biscuit and salt meat. 

The provincial officers resented the indignity, and 
only that they were in a position of such danger would 
have resigned their commissions. 

Washington shared their feelings, and wrote to the 
Governor that he " would rather toil like a day laborer 
for a maintenance than serve on such ignoble terms." 
He insisted that equal pay was essential to the service. 
"For my own part," he writes to Colonel Fairfax, "it 
is a matter almost indifferent to me whether I serve 
for full pay or as a generous volunteer. Indeed, did 
my circumstances correspond with my inclinations, I 
should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter, for 
the motives that have led me here are pure and noble ; 
I had no view of acquisition but that of honor, by 
serving faithfully my king and my country." 



BRA DDO CICS DEFEA T. 49 

While the bridge was in i)rocess of coDstriiction, 
Washington set out with a small party and an Indian 
guide to try whether it were possible to descend the 
river. The guide soon refused to go on without a pre- 
sent, but was conciliated by the gift of a ruffled shirt 
and an old coat. The river proved to be navigable 
only by an Indian canoe, and Washington determined 
to continue his route by land. On the 23d, the Indian 
scouts brought word that the French were only about 
eight hundred strong, and that they had sent out about 
hklf their force on some secret expedition, and imme- 
diately after came a message from the Half King, t(j 
the effect that the French were on their way, intending 
to fall upon the first English party they met, and beg- 
ging any ofhcer to whom the message should come to 
be on his guard. The Half King promised also that 
in five days he and his chiefs would come and hold a 
council. 

In the evening, Washington heard that the French 
were crossing the river about eighteen miles above. 
He hastened to take up a position at a place called 
Great Meadows. Here he cleared away the bushes 
and made ready what he is pleased to call "a charm- 
ing field for an encounter." 

Scouts were sent out, who returned without having 
seen anything of the enemy. The new recruits grew 
very nervous, believing themselves surrounded by 
unseen foes. There was an alarm in the night, and the 
troops kept watch till daybreak. No enemy was visi- 
ble, but it was found that six men had deserted. 

On the 25th Mr. Gist arrived from his place at 

4 



50 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Laurel Hill with the uevvs that La Force, a bold and 
subtle man, was prowling about with a detachment of 
fifty men, and Washington sent out an officer with 
seventy-five men in pursuit. About nine o'clock that 
same evening an Indian runner came in with a second 
message from the Half King, saying that he had seen the 
tracks of two Frenchmen, and that no doubt the whole 
force was near at hand. The Half King and his peo- 
ple were about six miles off. Late as it was, Washing- 
ton set off with forty men to join his Indian friend, 
and so difficult was the dark path through the woods 
that he reached the Indian camp only at sunrise. 

The runner had told the truth. The French were 
encamped in an obscure place in the woods, where 
they had built cabins for shelter. 

Washington now agreed with the Half King upon 
a plan to surround the French, which was at once put 
into execution. Washington was first on the ground, 
and Avas seen by the French, who ran to arms. A 
sharp contest followed for about fifteen minutes, when 
the French fled, but w^ere captured, all but one man, 
w^ho escaped to carry home the new^s. Ten were killed 
in the action, and one wounded, w^hile twenty-one 
were taken prisoners. 

Washington had some trouble to protect these men 
from the Indians, who, as usual, desired to add to 
their collection of scalps. Jumonville, the French 
commander, w^as killed, and La Force, the veteran spy 
and mischief-maker, taken prisoner. La Force put on 
an air of being greatly injured, declared that he and 
his companions had been merely ambassadors, and as 



BRADDOCICS DEFEAT. 51 

such ought to have been held sacred. Unfortunately 
a letter found on Jumonville told a very different story, 
as did his conduct in lurking about and concealing 
himself as long as possible. 

Washington declared his belief that they were spies, 
in which opinion the Half King heartily agreed, 
adding that if his white brothers were so foolish as to 
let them go, he, the Half King, would " never help 
them to catch another Frenchman." Notwithstanding 
this alarming threat, Washington sent the prisoners to 
Governor Dinwiddle, at Winchester, and furnished La 
Force and his companion with clothing of his own. 
He bespoke for them the " favor due to their conduct 
and personal merit," but he thought it right to put the 
Governor on his guard against La Force and his pre- 
tence of an embassy. The French, however, told their 
own story, and accused Washington of having fired on 
a flag of truce and of having assassinated Jumonville. 
Such was his reward for keeping on their heads the 
scalps of his prisoners. He did not succeed in saving 
those of the Frenchmen who had been killed. The 
Half King sent them to his people, and went home 
himself to do all in his power to rouse his friends and 
allies to join the English. This was Washington's 
first battle, and he seems rather to have enjoyed it. 
Although he was very much exposed, he did not receive 
a scratch. 

He wrote to his brother : " I heard the bullets whis- 
tle, and, believe me, there is something charming in 
the sound." 

It must be remembered that when Washington wrote 



52 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

these words he was a very young man, who had just 
won his first fight. The words were repeated to George 
the Second. 

" He would not say so if he had been used to hear 
many," was the reply of the fighting old king. 

Many years afterward, Washington was asked 
whether he had really made such a speech. 

" If I said so," he answered, " it must have been 
when I was very young." 

Washington, however, was not destined to be as suc- 
cessful in the rest of his campaign. He was unfortu- 
nate in his coadjutors, and was kept terribly short of 
provisions by the knavery or bad management of the 
commissaries. At one time the men were six days 
without flour, and when an accidental supply was 
obtained from an Ohio trader, arrived the Half King 
with thirty or forty warriors and all their wives and 
children to be fed. Colonel Fry, wlio was expected to 
bring up a reinforcement of Carolina troops, died, and 
the Carolinians were not only very late in making their 
appearance, but were rather worse than useless when 
they did come, never rendering any service during the 
whole campaign. 

By Fry's death, Washington was left in command. 
He hastened on the construction of the palisaded fort, 
on which the troops had been employed, and it was 
appropriately named Fort Necessity. It was at this 
place that Washington first made the acquaintance of 
Dr. Craik, who remained his w^arm friend through life 
and watched over his deathbed. 

A letter from Governor Dinwiddle informed Wash- 



BRADDOCICS DEFEAT. 53 

ingtoD that he might expect soon to see Captain McKay 
with an independent company of one hundred, from 
South Carolina. 

Washington felt that a company, independent of his 
command, and insisting on privileges not shared by the 
other troops, would be worse than useless, and wrote to 
the Governor that he hoped Captain McKay " w^ould 
have more sense than to insist upon auy unreasonable 
distinction, because he and his officers had commissions 
from his Majesty." 

A number of friendly chiefs assembled at the camp, 
to meet Adjutant Muse, who came with messages, 
medals and presents from the Governor, and there was 
a vast amount of speech-making, giving of wampum 
belts and presents, and exchanging of names. 

Mr. William Fairfax, Washington's unchanging 
and judicious friend, had advised him by all means to 
maintain j^rayers at the camp, especially in the pres- 
ence of the Indians, and this was done at Great Mead- 
ows, AVashington himself acting as chaplain. 

" It certainly was not one of the least striking pic- 
tures presented in this wild campaign," says Mr. 
Irving. " The youthful commander presiding, with 
calm seriousness, over a motley assemblage of half- 
equipped soldiery, leathern-clad woodsmen and hun- 
ters, and painted savages, with their wives and chil- 
dren, and uniting them all in solemn devotion by his 
own example and demeanor." 

On the 16th came in nine French deserters, who 
reported that the fort at the forks of the river was 
complete. It had been named Fort Duquesne, in honor 



54 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

of the Canadian governor. Unless bombs could be 
thrown in on the land side, it was impregnable. There 
were five hundred men in the place, and eleven hun- 
dred more were expected. The deserters also declared 
that the pretended embassy had been sent out with hos- 
tile intentions. 

That same day Captain McKay arrived with his 
independent company, who, as Washington had feared, 
were so very independent as to be of no earthly use. 
Captain McKay would not take orders from a provin- 
cial officer, and stood so much upon etiquette, that he 
would not agree upon any rendezvous in case of dan- 
ger, nor would he take from Washington the parole 
and countersign, though it was a matter of necessity 

for his own company's safety. 

Considering that Washington was but twenty-two, 

and in his first command, he showed a surprising degree 
of self-control under these difficulties. He kept his 
temper wath the foolish captain, but wrote to Governor 
Dinwiddle, asking to have the relative authority de- 
fined, and saying that if that were impossible. Captain 
McKay's " absence would tend to the public advantage." 

After a day's rest, on the 11th of June, Washington 
resumed his march toward Kedstone Creek. 

Captain McKay would not allow his men to work on 
the road, unless they were allowed a shilling a day 
extra. Washington had neither the power nor the 
will to grant this demand, nor did he choose that the 
South Carolinians should march at their ease, while 
his own sorely tried men were engaged, w^ith their axes 
and picks, in the heavy task of road-making. 



BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 55 

The independent company were left to keep guard 
over Fort Necessity. 

Various ludian sachems met him on the road, all 
given to long speeches and promises, and all wanting 
presents. 

He had only reached Gist's place, thirteen miles 
from Fort Necessity, when he heard that a large num- 
ber of French and Indians were on their way to attack 
him. He came to a halt, began to throw uj) entrench- 
ments, and sent word to McKay to join him. Wlien 
the captain arrived, he was not too majestic to hold a 
council of war, and it was decided to retreat. The 
march was a hard one. There were but few horses, 
and Washington gave up his own to aid in carrying the 
ammunition, paying the soldiers liberally out of his 
own purse to carry his baggage. His officers did the 
same. The weather was hot. The Virginians took 
turn about to drag the artillery, while the Carolinians, 
still standing upon their dignity as king's troops, 
refused to take any part whatever in the toils incident 
to a hurried retreat, and walked along at their ease. 

When, on the 1st of July, they reached the fort at 
Great Meadows, the Virginians, in a rage, vowed they 
would not drag the baggage nor the guns a step fur- 
ther. Washington determined to strengthen his posi- 
tion at Fort Necessity, setting the soldiers a good 
example by working at the entrenchments with his 
own hands. He would not condescend to ask help 
from the Carolinians, and the " king's troops " looked 
on while the Virginians and their officers felled trees 
and rolled logs for a breastAvork. 



56 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

It was a hard experience, but it was by no means 
the last annoyance which Washington was destined to 
undergo from the arrogance of gentlemen " bearing the 
king's commission." 

They had not set to work upon their fortifications a 
moment too soon, for the French w^ere upon them before 
the work was fairly finished. The English made a 
brave resistance, but everything was against them. 
Their Indian allies had deserted them before the 
attack. The rain fell in torrents, and the men, half 
drowned in the trenches, found their guns getting use- 
less with wet. 

In the end the English were obliged to capitulate. 
Washington sent his old friend Van Braam to settle 
the terms. Two proposals made by the French were 
rejected, and a third time he went, and returned with 
written articles in French. There was neither pen nor 
paper at hand, and Van Braam had to translate them 
by Avord of mouth. 

A candle was brought, for the night had fallen, but 
the rain fell so fast that it was difficult to keep the 
\vj\\i burning. Washington and his officers stood 
around to hear the old soldier read the terms out of 
French into Dutch-English. Washington and his 
officers understood that they were allowed to return 
uiimolested to the settlements ; that they were to march 
out with the honors of war, and were to carry away all 
their property and stores except tlie laro;e guns, which 
were to be destroyed ; that they should promise not to 
attempt to build or work on the lands of the king of 
France for a year ; that the prisoners taken in the fight 



BRADDOCKS DEFEAT. bl 

with Jumonville should be given uji, and that until 
they were, Van Braam and Stobo should be hostages 
for them. 

When the articles came to be understood, however, 
it was found that the English had pledged themselves 
not to work " on the lands beyond the mountaiucs for a 
year," thus leaving the ground clear to the French in 
the very territory in dispute, and still worse, AVashiug- 
ton was made to say that the death of Jumonville was 
an assassination. Notwithstanding the unlucky result 
of the campaign, Washington and his officers received 
.the thanks of the State Legislature, and eleven hun- 
dred dollars were distributed among the private sol- 
diers. Poor Jacob Van Braam paid dearly for his 
bad French, for not only was he left a prisoner in the 
hands of the enemy, but was excluded by name from 
the vote of thanks to the officers, besides being accused 
of treachery. 

It is not at all likely, however, that he was guilty 
of any worse offence than a bad translation — a misfor- 
tune likely enough to happen to an unlettei-ed man, 
translating in a great hurry from one foreign language 
into another, and that in the midst of a pouring rain, 
by the light of one flaring tallow candle. 

He was taken by the French to Montreal, and at one 
time treated with great severity. He finally escaped, 
went into the English army, was discharged, and lived 
to write to his old pupil, Washington, a letter of con- 
gratulation on his success at the battle of Yorktown. 

For some time after the affair at Great INIeadows, 
Washington took no active part in military afiairs. 



68 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

With the blundering arrogance which marked the 
English colonial policy on more than one occasion, 
and which did as much as anything to bring about the 
war of independence, the English government sent 
orders that all officers holding commissions from the 
king should rank above all provincial officers, what- 
ever might be their respective positions. 

This regulation, together with perpetual misunder- 
standings with the Governor (a jealous, wrong-headed 
man), decided Washington to resign his commission, 
nor would he consent to take it again, though re- 
peatedly urged to do so. He retired to Mount Vernon, 
and busied himself in cultivating his estate, a pursuit 
of which he was always very fond. Here he remained 
till an event occurred which caused great excitement 
in the colony and called our hero again to arms. This 
was the arrival of General Braddock, in command of 
the finest body of British troops ever seen in America. 
With these troops he proposed to sweep the French 
from the Ohio, if not from America altogether, and to 
put an end to the war. Washington's military spirit 
was once more aroused. The army was far finer than 
any he had ever seen, and General Braddock was con- 
sidered one of the best soldiers of the age. Washington 
intimated his desire to join the expedition as a volun- 
teer. General Braddock heard of it, and at once oflfered 
Washington a place on his own staff — a great compli- 
ment, though the position was without pay or profit 
of any kind. Washington at once accepted ih^ offer, 
despite the remonstrances of his mother, who dreaded 
to have him again exposed to the dangers of the 



BRADDOCICS DEFEAT. 59 

wilderness. He wrote her a most respectful and duti- 
ful letter, but, for once, declined to be guided by her 
advice. 

General Braddock received Washington with great 
civility. He was a stately and somewhat haughty, 
not to say pompous man, exact, positive and obstinate 
in maintaining any opinion he had formed. He had a 
great contempt for the notions of all non-combatants 
and provincials in general, and evidently thought he 
was about to carry all before him, and to march through 
the wilds of the Alleghany Mountains as easily as he 
would transport his army from London to York. 
When Washington was struck with utter dismay at 
what seemed to him totally unnecessary baggage to be 
transported with the army, and hinted to General 
Braddock that such a train would greatly hinder their 
operations, his remark was received with a sarcastic 
smile. Benjamin Franklin, then postmaster-general, 
visited the camp at Fredericktown on the business of 
providing means of transportation for the artillery, pro- 
visions and baggage. With all his own exertions Brad- 
dock had only been able to obtain twenty-five wagons, 
where at least one hundred and fifty were needed. 
He was utterly dismayed, declared that the expedition 
was at an end, and railed heartily at the powers at 
home for sending him to such a country. Franklin 
undertook the affair, and in two weeks time the one 
hundred and fifty teams, with two hundred and fifty- 
nine carrying horses, were on their way to camp. The 
owners thereof, saying that they knew nothing of 
General Braddock, insisted on Franklin's own bond. 



60 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

which he willingly gave. He also advanced a large 
sum of money, very little of which he ever got back 
again. It was not only in the matter of wagons that 
Franklin was of service to Braddock's army. Colonel 
Dunbar represented to him that the condition of the 
subalterns was a somewhat hard one, as none of them 
were rich, and all were illy provided with necessaries 
for a march through the wilderness. Franklin at 
once bestirred himself, wrote to the proper committee 
of the Assembly, and sent them a list of such things 
as he thought would be acceptable. The result was 
the immediate arrival in camp of twenty parcels of 
provisions, each containing a supply of tea, coffee, 
chocolate and other good things, as presents to the 
officers. " They were very thankfully received," says 
Franklin, and indeed they ought to have been. Gene- 
ral Braddock also made warm acknowledgments for 
Franklin's services in procuring wagons and provi- 
sions, and condescended to sketch for his edification a 
plan of his intended campaign. " After taking Fort 
Duquesne," said he, " I am to proceed to Niagara, 
and having taken that, to Frontegnac, if the season will 
allow, and I suppose it will, for Duquesne can hardly 
detain me more than three or four days, and then I 
see nothing that can obstruct my march to Niagara." 

Franklin ventured to hint that there were some few 
difficulties in the way — that the roads were not all 
that could be wished, that the Indians were formida- 
ble enemies, and that in fact — though he was far too 
good a courtier to say so — the general was counting his 
chickens before they Avere hatched. 



BRADDOCICS DEFEAT. 61 

" He smiled at my ignorance," says Franklin, " and 
replied, * These savages may indeed be a formidable 
enemy to raw American militia, but on the king's 
regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they 
should make any impression.' I was conscious of my 
impropriety in disputing with a military man in 
matters of his profession, and said no more." 

At last, after many delays and difficulties, the train 
was set in motion. The general began his journey in 
a travelling chariot, with a body-guard of light horse 
and his staff accompanying him. By the time he 
reached Fort Cumberland, however, the chariot was 
laid aside and not again resumed. At Fort Cumber- 
land he was joined by the American forces for which 
he and his officers entertained a contempt, which they 
took no pains to disguise, on account of their unsoldier- 
like appearance and their ignorance of drill ; but they 
were soon to learn that drill was not everything. 

Now Braddock's troubles began anew ; but the great 
misfortune of all was, that nobody was able to tell him 
anything, and he literally believed that what he did 
not know was not worth knowing. He afironted the 
Americans by abusing their country and every one in 
it. He affi-onted the Indian chiefs — quite as fine 
gentlemen as himself in their way — by never calling 
them in council or asking their advice, and in the end 
most of his Indian allies deserted him. He was deter- 
mined to make a regular military road, and as Wash- 
ington wrote, " He halted to level every molehill and 
to bridge every brook, by which means he was four 
days in getting tw^elve miles." He did even worse. 



62 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

There was a certain noted ranger called by the whites 
Captain Jack, and by the Indians Black Rifle, who 
had been engaged by an American officer to join the 
expedition. Captain Jack had pushed out into the 
wilderness, and made himself a home, where he lived 
peacefully enough with his wife and children. One 
day, however, on returning from a hunting expedition, 
he found his cabin burned and his wife and children 
murdered by the ludiaus. From that hour Jack for- 
sook all peaceful pursuits and the homes of civilized 
men, and occupied himself solely in watching the fron- 
tier and protecting the outlying settlers from the 
savages. He was looked upon by the Indians with 
extreme and superstitious dread, and by the whites 
with equally superstitious veneration, and happy was 
the man whose hospitality Black Rifle condescended 
to accept for a night. 

At Little Meadows, Black Rifle presented himself 
with a band of rangers, used, like himself, to all the 
wiles of Indian warfare, and asked for an interview 
with the general. It may be easily understood how 
valuable such a band of men would prove as guides, 
scouts and sharpshooters. Braddock, however, in his 
amazing folly and self-conceit, treated the offer of 
service with contempt and the old ranger himself with 
uncivil arrogance. " There was time enough for 
making arrangements," he said, " and he had experi- 
enced troops on whom he could rely." Black Rifle, 
indignant at such a reception of his services, returned 
to his baud, and one and all, shouldering their rifles, 
withdrew into the woods and betook themselves to 



BR AD DOCKS DEFEAT. G3 

their former task of guarding the Pennsylvania 
frontier. 

Meantime matters grew worse and worse, and Gene- 
ral Braddock made the rather late discovery that even 
a British general might not know everything, and con- 
descended to ask advice. AVashlugton was the man 
to whom he turned, and the young soldier gave his 
advice modestly, but very decidedly. He counselled 
an immediate attack upon Fort Duquesne. He 
advised the general to make a rapid march with the 
light troops, leaving behind the more cumbrous bag- 
gage, and, indeed, everything that could possibly be 
spared. His advice was partly taken, and twelve 
hundred men, with ten field-pieces, were selected for 
the service. Washington earnestly repeated his ad- 
vice that the amount of personal baggage should be 
reduced as far as possible, in order that the animals 
used in its transportation might be used as pack- 
horses for the general service. He gave up his own 
horse for the purpose, but when it came to the other 
officers, it turned out that, out of two hundred and 
twelve, only eleven horses could be spared for public 
use. The march, too, instead of being rapid, was as 
slow as ever, for the general could not be prevailed 
upon to abandon his darling road-making, even in the 
present pressing emergency. Washington had been 
unwell for several days, and now became very ill, with 
intense headache and a high fever. General Brad- 
dock treated his young friend with the greatest kind- 
ness and consideration, and at last insisted on his re- 
maining behind the rest at the crossing of the Yough- 



64 WASmXGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

ioglieuy river. He left him a good store of provisions, 
and his friend and physician, Doctor Craik. Nothing 
but the general's express command, and the positive 
assurances of the physician that his life depended on 
his obedience, could have induced Washington to re- 
main behind/'' As it was, he only stayed seven days, 
and, on the arrival of some troops, who were carry- 
ing provisions to the camp, he went forward with 
them, travelling in one of the w^agons, as he was 
unable to sit on his horse. 

He did not find matters in a very promising condi- 
tion. The Indians w^ere hovering about the camp. 
Every now and then they snapped up a horse or fell 
upon and scalped some unlucky straggler, v.hile they 
themselves were as invisible to the English soldiers as 
if they had been made of air. Indeed it was their 
boast that they had tracked and watched Braddock 
through his whole march — a boast they would hardly 
have been able to make but for the general's uncere- 
monious treatment of Black Rifle and his sharpshoot- 
ers. A great deal of valuable time had been wasted, 
and no certain intelligence had been procured of the 
enemy's force or movements. 

It is pleasant to be able to record one instance of 
good sense and good feeling on the part of the unfor- 
tunate General Braddock. It chanced one day, after 
several stragglers had been killed, that a party of 
grenadiers came upon a small number of friendly 

* Washington says the general saved his life by ordering the 
physician to give him James' powders — now considered a very 
mild remedy 



B BAD DOCKS DEFEAT. 65 

lucliims, and not understanding their signs, fired upon 
them. Only one was killed, but he proved to be the 
gon of Scaroovadi, a chief of eminence among the 
Indian allies. Becoming aware of their mistake, the 
grenadiers took up the body, and, with great respect, 
carried it to the camp. General Bradd(jck sent at 
once for the father and the other Indians, condoled 
with them on the misfortune which had taken place, 
and made the presents which Indian usage demanded 
on such an occasion. He also ordered the body of the 
young man to be buried with all the honors of war. 
All the officers attended the service, and a volley was 
fired over the grave. The father and other friends 
were pacified by these marks of respect, and remained 
faithful to the end of the disastrous campaign. 

Washington found General Braddock encamped 
within fifteen miles of Fort Duquesne, and determined 
to attack the enemy without delay. His plans were 
all laid, and when Washington suggested that the Vir- 
ginia Rangers should be despatched as an advanced 
guard, he received an augry reply. Braddock had 
arranged to send forAvard two or three companies of 
regular troops, and he had not yet arrived at the point 
where he could be told anything. 

Early in the morning. Colonel Gage was sent for- 
ward with the advance. With the grenadiers was an 
independent company, commanded by Captain Hora- 
tio Gates. A w^orking party followed to clear the road, 
and by sunrise the wdiole army was in motion, with 
drums beating and colors flying, the polished arms and 
scarlet uniforms making a gallant show. Despite his 



66 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

weakness, Washington mounted his horse and joined 
the staff. It was his first view of a regular and discip- 
lined force, and he was enthusiastic in his admiration, 
and often spoke in after life of the impressions made 
upon him,. Gage went first with the advance ; then 
Sir John St. Clair, with the working party and the two 
six-pounders ; then General Braddock, with the main 
body, while the Virginians and other provincial troops 
brought up the rear. 

They were now upon a piece of level ground, march- 
ing on a road about twelve feet wide, flanked on each 
side by ravines covered with brushwood. Had Wash- 
ington's advice b^en followed, these ravines would have 
been explored by scouting parties, but none were sent 
out, even in advance. As some one sarcastically 
remarked, the men were disposed as if for a review in 
Hyde Park. 

The advance party were just ascending a rising 
ground, and General Braddock was about to follow, 
when he heard quick and heavy firing ahead. Exactly 
what Washington had feared had come to pass. A 
body of French and Indians had occupied the rising 
ground, and the advance party under Gage had walked 
straight into the trap laid for them. A great number 
of men fell at the first fire, and the rest were driven 
back on the main body, leaving their cannon behind 
them. Gage tried to make his men charge with the 
bayonet and clear the hill from whence came the sharp- 
est fire, but in vain. The men were utterly appalled 
by the yells of the savages, and absolutely refused to 
quit the line of march. 



BRADDOCE?S DEFEAT. 67 

All was now confusion and dismay. The British 
troops, unused to bush fighting, surrounded by an 
unseen enemy, were panic-stricken, and refused to 
advance. The Virginians waited for no orders ; they 
broke at once, and each man " took a tree," whence he 
could pick off the Indians as they showed them- 
selves. Washington begged Braddock to allow the 
regulars to do the same, but, obstinate to the last, he 
persisted in forming the men into platoons, thus mak- 
ing them more conspicuous targets for the Indian 
marksmen. Some of the men, seeing how the day was 
going, attempted to follow the example of the Virgin- 
ians, but the general stormed and swore at them, called 
them cowards, and even struck them.* The officers 
behaved with the most self-sacrificing bravery, and 
strove in every way, by entreaties, threats, and exam- 
ple, to inspirit their men, but all in vain. They only 
lost their own lives without accomplishing anything. 
The Indians picked off every man on horseback, and 
the English soldiers, huddled together without order, 
fired their pieces wildly, killing more of their own 
friends than of their enemies. Every now and then 
an Indian, with feathered head and painted face, would 
spring forward, scalp a fallen officer, or snatch the 
bridle of a riderless horse, and retreat unharmed. 

All through this dreadful and shameful day, Wash- 
ington was in the saddle. His brother aids were all 
either killed or wounded early in the action, and he 
alone was left to carry the orders of the general. He 
was in every part of the field at once, taking no care 
* See note in Appendix. 



68 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

for his own life. He had four bullets through his coat, 
and two horses were shot under him, but he never 
received a scratch, and the Indians gazed at him with 
superstitious wonder, as one who bore a charmed life. 
He was sent to the main body to bring the artillery 
into action ; but Sir Peter Halket had been shot down, 
and the men could not be kept to the guns. Had the 
ravines been raked with grajoe shot, say the historians, 
the day might have been saved, but it could not be 
done. The men would or could do nothing, and the 
only gun fired was fired by Washington's own haud.-^. 
At last all hope was over. General Braddock had 
constantly remained in the midst of the hottest fire, 
while ofiicers and men fell around him. Finally he 
was struck by a bullet, which wounded him in the arm, 
and then lodged in his lungs. He fell into the arms 
of an American, Captain Stewart, who, with the help 
of another ofiicer and a servant, placed him in a tum- 
bril, and carried him away. It is said that, in his 
misery and despair, he begged his preservers to leave 
him on the field to die. The rout was complete. The 
wagoners took each a horse from his team and rode ofif. 
The men fled pell-mell, dragging their officers with 
them, while the Indians pursued them with frightful 
cries. Only the eagerness of the savages for scalps and 
plunder saved the English force from utter destruc- 
tion. Before they reached the river, which they had 
crossed v>dth such pomp and pride in the morning, 
nearly eight hundred liad fiiUen, of whom more than 
sixty were ofiicers. Tlie Virginians had suffered most, 
and one regiment was all but annihilated. 



BR AD DOCK'S DEFEAT. 69 

About a quarter of a mile from the ford, some hun- 
dred men were stopped, and formed in an advanta- 
geous position. Braddock was still able to give orders, 
and he had some faint hope of keeping the ground till 
the arrival of reinforcements ; but the men were thor- 
oughly cowed, and in the course of an hour it was 
found that the most of them had stolen away. Brad- 
dock and his Avounded aids, Orme and IMorris, wit- 
nessed their flight, and were afterwards joined by Gage, 
with eighty men, whom he had brought off. 

Washington, ill as he was, went forward to Dunbar's 
camp, forty miles away, to bring up guards, provisions 
and wagons for the wounded. He found the camp in 
the greatest distress and confusion. Tidings of Brad- 
dock's defeat had reached it before him, and the officers 
had hard work to prevent a general rout. AVashing- 
ton executed his orders, and returned as quickly as 
possible, meeting General Braddock at Gist's planta- 
tion. On the thirteenth of July, the sorrowful party 
reached Great Meadows, and here General Braddock 
died. He had said very little the first day or two, 
except to repeat the words more than once : " Who 
would have thought it ?" Once he said : " We shall 
know how to meet them another time !" But there 
was no other time for him. He had had his day, and 
it was gone. He was very patient and grateful, spoke 
warmly of the bravery of the Virginians, and expressed 
his gratitude to them and to Captain Stewart. He 
apologized to Washington for neglecting his advice, 
and bequeathed to him his favorite horse, and also his 
faithful servant, named Bishop, who had kej^t close to 



70 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

his master's side all that disastrous day, and had helped 
to carry him off the field. 

General Braddock died on the thirteenth of July, 
1755, and was buried the same night at Great Mead- 
ows. The funeral was conducted with haste and 
secrecy, and the chaplain being wounded, Washington 
read the funeral service over his late commander. It 
is said that the baggage wagons were made to pass over 
the grave next day, the more effectually to conceal it 
from the Indians. It is still known and pointed out to 
visitors. 

Thus died a brave man and a gallant soldier, who 
owed his defeat and death mainly to his own obstinacy 
and self-conceit. He was fully persuaded of his own 
superiority to all about him, and that persuasion led 
him on till it ended in his own ruin, and that of his 
companions. 

Of the brave army which had left Fort Cumberland 
on the nineteenth of June, with all the pomp of war, a 
miserable remnant returned on the seventeenth of 
July, beaten, dispirited and distressed. Still there were 
left about fifteen hundred men — enough to have made 
a stand, if there had been any one to command them ; 
but Colonel Dunbar, the senior surviving officer, was 
too thoroughly scared to think of such a thing. He 
had lost all his ammunition and artillery in his flight. 
Leaving his sick and wounded at Fort Cumber- 
land, he pushed on, and never stopped till he found 
himself in Philadelphia, where nobody was particularly 
glad to see him. 

To add to the disgrace of the defeat, it was discovered 



BRADDOCirS DEFEAT. 71 

that the attacking force cousisted of only eight hundred 
and fifty men, who had been sent out to keep the enemy 
in check, while the French commander made up his 
mind whether he should surrender or hold the fort. 
He was utterly astonished when the ambuscading party 
returned in triumph, laden with scalps and booty, lead- 
ing long trains of pack-horses, and grotesquely arrayed 
in the gold-laced coats and caps of the fallen English- 
men. They had lost only about seventy men in all. 
The guns were fired, troops were sent out in pursuit, 
and the savages celebrated their easy victory with 
songs, scalp dances and abundance of rum. 

We learn from Franklin's biography that certain 
gentlemen came to him with a subscription paper to 
pay the cost of fireworks, with which to celebrate the 
downfall of Fort Duquesne. They were very much 
astonished when Franklin looked gravely upon the 
matter, and one of them said, hastily: "You don't 
surely suppose that the fort will not be taken." " The 
events of war," said Franklin, " are subject to great 
uncertainty." The subscription was dropped, and the 
projectors thereby saved themselves a great mortifica- 
tion. Franklin, on the same occasion, makes a very 
significant remark. " This whole transaction," he says, 
" gave us our first suspicion that our exalted idea of 
the prowess of British troops was not well founded." 



CHAPTER V. 

THE TAKING OF FOKT DUQUESNE — WASHINGTON'S 
MARRIAGE. 

ON the 26th of July, Washington returned to 
Mount Vernon, having impaired his private es- 
tate, injured his health, undergone endless hardship 
and fatigue, and gained nothing, as he himself said, 
*' but a sound beating." In this last particular, how- 
ever, he was mistaken. He had gained much valuable 
experience and a great deal of reputation, notwith- 
standing the disastrous defeat in w^hich he had shared. 
In a sermon, preached the same year by the Reverend 
Samuel Davis, he w^as spoken of as " that heroic youth 
Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hope Provi- 
dence hath preserved in so signal a manner for some 
important service to his country.'^ The time was to 
come when the good man's words would read like a 
prophecy. We cannot but think, as we read the story 
of his Virginia campaigns, that Washington was in- 
deed being trained for the great w^ork he was to 
accomplish hereafter. 

The news of Braddock's defeat and death soon 

spread over the whole country, carrying grief and 

alarm to every town and callage, and especially to the 

outlying settlements most exposed to the marauding 

(72) 



TAKING OF FORT DUQUESNE. 73 

parties of the French and Indians. While the French 
glorified themselves and made classical allusions, in 
their usual boasting fashion, and the Jesuits of Mon- 
treal sang Te Deum over the victory, the settlers in 
the Shenandoah and Mohawk Valleys, and in the bor- 
ders of New Hampshire and Vermont, looked well to 
the priming of their rifles when they went out to do 
their evening "chores," or to see to their pasturing 
stock, while their wives watched anxiously for their 
return, started at every unaccustomed sound, and fan- 
cied in the hoot of the owl or the cry of the whip- 
poorwill the signal of an Indian assault. Too often 
the fancy w^as not a vain one. Such sounds were fre- 
quently used as signal cries, and the woman who left 
home for a night to watch with a sick neighbor, or the 
man who went to the nearest town on business, re- 
turned to find the log house a heap of smoking ashes, 
the stock butchered in very w^antonness, and the little 
baby or the old grandmother, too feeble to be a valu- 
able prisoner, lying dead and mangled amid the ruins 
of the home. 

Do you say that these things are too horrible to be 
told — that they are past and gone, and should be for- 
gotten ? I do not think so. It was amid scenes like 
these that the tree of our liberties was planted. It 
was with blood and tears and heavy strokes that it 
was nourished and Avatered and pruned, till it became 
a great tree, in which all the fowls of the air came to 
lodge and shelter. Let it be our part to see that none 
of these same fowls rob our fair tree of its legitimate 
fruits or break down any of its branches, — that rats 



74 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

and other unclean vermin do not undermine the stately- 
trunk till it becomes a foul decaying ruin, fit for their 
own filthy brood and for nothing else. 

It now became evident that some active measures 
must be taken for the public safety. The need was 
so pressing that for once the Governor and the House 
of Burgesses were agreed, and the house voted a supply 
of forty thousand pounds and the raising of a regi- 
ment. Washington was at once offered the command. 
His mother was distressed at having her favorite son 
again exposed to the dangers from which he had so 
lately escaped, and begged him to remain at home. 
He wrote her the following letter in reply : — 

"Honored Madam: 

" If it is in my power to avoid going to the Ohio 
again, I shall; but if the command is pressed upon 
me by the 'general voice of the country, and oflTered 
uj^on such terms as cannot be objected against, it 
would reflect dishonor on me to refuse it, and that, I 
am sure, must and ought to give you greater uneasiness 
than my going in an honorable command. Upon no 
other terms will I accept it. At present I have no 
proposals made to me, nor have I any advice of such 
an intention except from private hands." 

Washington had not long to wait for the "propo- 
sals." On the very day when this letter was sent he 
received news that he was appointed commander-in- 
chief of all the forces to be raised in the colony. The 
appointment was not at all to the taste of Governor 
Dinwiddle, who had always been jealous of Washing- 



TAKING OF FORT DUQUESNE. 75 

ton, and from henceforth annoyed and hindered him 
by every means in his power. 

Washington fixed his headquarters at Williamsburg, 
where he had a foretaste of the vexations which he 
was afterwards to encounter on a much larger scale. 
The men would not volunteer, the militia could not 
be mustered. There were no wagons and no horses, 
and it was impossible to obtain them save by force. 
Meantime the alarms constantly increased, and ac- 
counts came from every quarter of the ravages com- 
mitted by the Indians. One of these alarms, though 
terrible enough at the time, had an absurd termination. 
One Sunday an express came riding into Williamsburg 
almost speechless from fright and hurry. He declared 
that the Indians were within twelve miles of the town 
— that they had attacked and destroyed the house of 
Isaac Julian, and were burning and murdering all 
before them. The town guards were at once strength- 
ened, and every man armed for whom weapons were 
to be found. The night passed in sleepless terror, and 
next morning matters were still worse. Another mes- 
senger came in, declaring that the Indians were within 
four miles of the town. He himself had heard their 
yells, the report of their guns and the screams of their 
victims. Washington at once put himself at the head 
of forty men, pushed forward to the scene of action, 
and captured — three drunken troopers, who were yell- 
ing, firing off their pieces, and indulging in other un- 
couth demonstrations of satisfaction over their liquor. 
These heroes were carried to town and lodged in the 
guard-house, to repent at leisure. The Indians who 



76 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

had attacked Julian's farm proved to be an old negro 
and a young mulatto, who were out looking for stray- 
cattle, and being seen by a young son of Julian's, 
were magnified into a whole war-party. 

At last the band of Indians who had been plunder- 
ing the country retreated, carrying off much valuable 
plunder and a great number of unhappy prisoners, 
whose fate was often far worse than that of the chil- 
dren and friends they had seen murdered. Some of 
these prisoners were afterwards recovered. Others 
were adopted by their captors, learned their language 
and married among them, and these last almost in- 
variably refused to return to civilized life when the 
chance was offered them. Washington followed the 
trail of the war-party till he was satisfied that they 
had crossed the Ohio, and that farther pursuit would 
be worse than useless. After his return, the land had 
a little breathing time. Washington endeavored to 
improve it by drilling his men and filling up his com- 
panies. The old question of rank was again brought 
forward, and made a good deal of trouble and discon- 
tent. To settle the matter, once for all, Washington 
was sent to Boston to hold a conference with Major 
General Shirley, then commander of all the forces in 
the English colonies. He travelled on horseback with 
his two aids. Captains Mercer and Stewart, and the 
gentlemen were attended by their black servants in 
handsome liveries, as the custom was in those times, 
when gentlemen affected more state and ceremony 
than is customary in these days. The journey of 
nearly five hundred miles in length was made in the 



TAKING OF FOR T DUQ UESNE. 77 

middle of winter ; but our young friends do not seem 
to have found it specially disagreeable. They were 
known everywhere as the young officers who had ac- 
quitted themselves so well in the disastrous day of 
Braddock's defeat, and Washington especially was 
looked upon with great favor as a rising young man, 
the future hope of the colonies. They were treated 
with distinguished attention in every place where they 
stopped, and in Philadelphia and New York some 
fine entertainments were given for them. In Boston 
General Shirley treated them with the greatest polite- 
ness; but the question of rank was not settled, and 
continued to be a source of vexation and embarrass- 
ment so lonp; as the colonies remained under the kino;. 
Washington remained in Boston about ten days, 
much interested in all he saw, and receiving a great 
deal of flattering attention. He then returned to New 
York, where it is said he was greatly taken with the 
charms of Miss Mary Philipse, a beautiful and wealthy 
young lady, sister-in-law to Washington's friend, Bev- 
erly Robinson. If so, he had no time to prosecute his 
suit, for he was quickly hurried home by the most 
alarming news from Virginia. He found the French 
and Indians once more threatening his native State, 
and even menacing his old friend Lord Fairfax in his 
home at Greenway Court. The sturdy old nobleman, 
however, absolutely refused to retire from his exposed 
situation, declaring that such an act would seem like 
a voluntary desertion of the poor people who had 
settled on his lands. He armed his numerous ser- 
vants, huntsmen and other retainers, laid in military 



78 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

stores, and with his nephew, Colonel Martin, remained 
to garrison his old stone house, in which, by the way, 
he was never attacked. 

At Winchester, Washington found matters worse 
than before. No troops could be spared from Fort 
Cumberland, and no men could be raised at home. 
The poor people at Winchester, who seem at best to 
have been a somewhat helpless set, clung to Washing- 
ton, and as usual expected him to perform imj^ossi- 
bilities. He wrote to Governor Dinwiddle : — 

" I am too little acquainted with pathetic language 
to attempt a description of these people's distresses. 
But what can I do ? I see their situations ; I know 
their danger, without having it in my power to give 
them any relief but by uncertain promises. The sup- 
plicating tears of the women and moving petitions of 
the men melt me into such deadly sorrow that I sol- 
emnly declare, if I know my own mind, I could offer 
myself a willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy, 
provided that would contribute to the people's ease." 

This letter seems to have answered the purpose as 
well as any pathetic language could have done. Gov- 
ernor Dinwiddie sent all the militia he could muster 
to the defence of Winchester. The House of Bur- 
gesses at last discovered that something was really the 
matter, and voted to raise a force of fifteen hundred 
men and the sum of twenty thousand pounds. With 
this money it was proposed to erect a chain of forts 
reaching from the Potomac to Carolina — a distance of 
nearly four hundred miles. Washington was strongly 
opposed to this project, and brought many excellent 



TAKING OF FORT DUQUESNE. 79 

reasons against it, one of which was that the forts 
could not be less than eighteen or twenty miles apart, 
which would afford ample room for the enemy to ylip 
through between them. But his advice was unheeded, 
and the forts were ordered to be built. Governor 
Dinwiddie seems to have taken pains to mortify, per- 
})lex and hinder the young commander by every means 
in his power. He threw all Washington's arrange- 
ments into confusion by counter-orders, upset his care- 
fully-considered plans, and even went so far as to com- 
plain of him to Lord Loudon, the English commander. 
Washington wrote his lordship a long letter, explaining 
his conduct with his usual direct simplicity, and after- 
ward visited him in Philadelphia on occasion of a 
meeting between Lord Loudon and the Southern com- 
manders. Lord Loudon treated him with great civility 
and consulted him upon the military affairs of the 
province ; but as he declined to act upon his advice, 
and sustained the plan of the chain of forts, the visit, 
on the whole, w^as not very satisfactory. Washington 
was disappointed at not obtaining a king's commission, 
on which he had set his heart — a disappointment 
which he felt very deeply at the time, but which after- 
w^ard saved him from a good deal of embarrassment. 
He was now anxious to retire altogether from public 
life. Everything went wrong. The great success 
which the French were obtaining in the North, partic- 
ularly the capture and destruction of Fort Oswego, 
had the natural effect of emboldening their allies, the 
savages. The Indians made perpetual raids on the 
frontier. The Shenandoah Valley, with other outlying 



80 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

settlements, was abandoned. Hundreds of men, women 
and children were killed or taken captive. Washing- 
ton was left to defend a frontier of seven hundred and 
fifty miles with about seven hundred ill-disciplined, 
half-fed and insubordinate troops. The Governor con- 
tinued his persecutions, charging Washington with 
carelessness, and with impertinence to his mighty self, 
refusing him even a very short leave of absence to 
attend to his private concerns ; and, in short, treating 
him with all the spite which a weak man in authority 
is apt to bestow on any one under him whom he sus- 
pects of the crime of knowing more than himself. At 
last, not Washington's patience, but his health gave 
way. He suffered severely, and by the urgent advice 
of his friend. Dr. Craik, he gave up his command and 
returned to Mount Vernon. This was in the year 
1758. In the same year the valiant and astute Gover- 
nor Dinwiddie was recalled, and went home regretted 
by nobody. 

For several months Washington remained at home 
suffering severely. He seems to have been very de- 
sponding about his own state, and believed himself to 
be falling into consumption, like his brother Law- 
rence. At last, however, his health began to improve, 
and in April, 1758, we find him again in active service 
at Fort Loudon. A new governor had come out, and 
General Abercrombie had taken the place of Lord 
Loudon, of whom Franklin had once said, " Like Saint 
George on the tavern sign-board, he was alwa3^s on 
horseback but never rode on." The military affairs of 
the colonies liad been put upon a better footing by the 



TAKING OF FORT DCQUESXF. 81 

■wise exertions of Mr. Pitt. Colonel Forbes, mIio had 
the principal command of the English forces in Vir- 
ginia, decided on undertaking once more the capture 
of Fort Duquesne. Washington, who was still com- 
mander of the Virginia forces, went at once to Win- 
chester. Here he gathered together about nineteen 
hundred men, whom he drilled with untiring industry. 
He was also joined by about seven hundred Indian 
warriors. There was the usual want of tents, provi- 
sions, arms, and everything else necessary for the effi- 
ciency of an army, and Washington set off for Wil- 
liamsburg to hold a consultation with Colonel Forbes 
and his military advisers. On his way he fell in with 
a certain Mr. Chamberlayne, and was with some diffi- 
culty persuaded to stop at this gentleman's house long 
enough to take dinner. Here he was introduced to a 
lady, Mrs. Martha Custis by name, a young widow 
with two little children, and what was for those times 
a large fortune. She is said to have been a very pretty 
woman, small, but graceful, with dark eyes and hair, 
and remarkably pleasant and engaging manners. 
Somehow or other, the hour which could hardly be 
spared for dinner lengthened out into three or four. 
The horses, after waiting till they were weary, were 
sent back to the stable, and our hero remained at the 
Chamberlayne mansion all night. "Happy's the 
wooing that's not long a-doing," says a respectable old 
proverb. Mrs. Custis lived at a place known as " the 
White House," not far from Williamsburg. Washing- 
ton stayed but a short time in that city, and we may 
conclude he was kept reasonably busy, for not only 
6 



82 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

did he settle matters with Colonel Forbes, but he was 
equally successful in coming to an agreement with 
Mrs. Custis, and when he returned to Winchester, it 
was with the expectation of marrying the fair lady at 
the close of the coming campaign. 

But he had not arrived at the end of his vexations. 
The time was slipping away. The Indians, growing 
impatient at the long delay, had almost entirely de- 
serted him. The troops were losing heart and disci- 
pline from inaction, and were ill-supplied with neces- 
saries, especially with clothes. Washington advised 
that they should be dressed in Indian style, with hunt- 
ing shirts and leggins. " It is an unbecoming dress for 
an officer, I own," he writes, "but convenience rather 
than show I think should be consulted." For a won- 
der, the English commander, Colonel Bouquet, saw the 
advantages of such a costume, and it was generally 
adopted. Washington afterward advocated the same 
dress for the Continental army, but without success. 

At last everything was supposed to be in readiness, 
and then Washington learned, to his surprise and vex- 
ation, that the road which had been constructed at 
such expense in Braddock's campaign was to be aban- 
doned, and a new one made through the woods and 
swamps of Pennsylvania. In vain both Washington 
and the Virginia Assembly remonstrated. The Eng- 
lish officers had been scared by the terrific accounts 
which Braddock had given of his route, and they were 
moreover governed by the representations of the Penn- 
sylvania Indian traders, who no doubt thought such 
a road would be very convenient for their own pur- 



TAKING OF FORT DUQVESNE. 83 

poses. Sixteen hundred men were set to work on tins 
new road, and after some weeks of immense toil and 
fatigue, they penetrated to a place called Loyal Han- 
nan, about fifty miles from Fort Duquesne. Here 
Colonel Bouquet halted with about two thousand men 
and set up a depot for provisions, and from this place 
he sent forward Major Grant with eight hundred men, 
partly Highlanders, partly Virginians, to recounoiter 
the fort and find out the force and disposition of the 
enemy. Washington had always been strongly opposed 
to such expeditions, and the result of the present justi- 
fied him in his opposition. Major Grant acted like a 
vainglorious fool, or a drunken man, and very proba- 
bly may have been both. Instead of advancing with 
all the secrecy possible, he seemed determined to attract 
the attention of the enemy and keep them advised of 
his movements. When he arrived in the neighbor- 
hood of the fort, he sent forth a party to burn a log 
house under its walls. Not content with that, next 
morning he ordered the drums to be beaten, the men 
to be set in battle array, and sent out an engineer with 
a party to take a plan of the fort in full view of the 
enemy. One has hardly patience to write or read of 
such folly. Most likely he thought he was going to 
capture the fort all by himself, and so carry off the 
whole glory of the expedition. 

If this was his aim, he was sadly disappointed. 
Like a grim old spider, the French commander lay 
quiet in the centre of his net, till the silly flies were 
fairly entangled in its meshes. Then he rushed out 
upon them. At the same time, the flank of the littJf 



84 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

force was attacked by parties of Indians, who were 
lying in ambush. It was a repetition, on a smaller 
scale, of Braddock's defeat. The British officers mar- 
shalled their men according to European tactics. 
Both officers and men fought with determined bravery, 
and the Highlanders especially stood their ground; 
but there was no chance from the first. The fight 
became a mere butchery, with hatchet and scalping- 
knife. Grant surrendered to a French officer, and the 
whole force was put to flight and confusion. Again 
it was an American officer who checked the enemy, 
and brought off* all that could be saved. Captain 
Bullitt had been left with fifty Virginians to guard 
the baggage. Sending off" the most valuable part of 
the stores on horses, he made a barricade with the 
wagons, within which he received such of the fugitives 
as were able to reach him. With a couple of well- 
directed volleys and a bayonet charge, he first checked 
and then put to flight the triumphant enemy, and 
brought back to Loyal Hannan the little force, with 
the loss of twenty-one officers and two hundred and 
seventy-three privates. Washington's own regiment 
lost sixty-two men and two officers. It was, perhaps, 
some consolation to the survivors that Colonel Forbes 
publicly complimented the Virginians on their steadi- 
ness and bravery, and especially distinguished Captain 
Bullitt, who was afterwards made a major. Wash- 
ington, who might have had the poor comfort of say- 
ing " I told you so," excuses Colonel Bouquet as far 
as possible, and says, "It is generally admitted that 
<^r3,nt exceeded his orders." 



TAKING OF FORT DUQUESXE. 85 

Everything earthly must have some sort of an end, 
and at last, after several changes of council, after deci- 
sions and counter decisions, the twenty-fifth day of 
November saw the British force in front of Fort Du- 
quesne. The latter part of their march must have 
been sad and disheartening enough, for at every step 
they met with piteous relics of their former companions 
slain and mangled by the pitiless Indians. Taught at 
last by their reverses, they advanced with great pre- 
caution and silence till they came in sight of the fort. 
Lo and behold, they found nothing to do. Alarmed 
and disheartened by the British successes at the nortli, 
and the approach of the southern army, the com- 
mander waited till Forbes was within one day's march, 
when he blew up his magazine, set fire to the fort and 
retreated down the Ohio with his whole force. The 
ruins of the fort were still smoking when AVashington 
with the advanced guard marched in and planted the 
English flag on what had so long been the terror and 
scourge of the southern colonies. 

The first thing done was to gather up and bury the 
remains of the brave and unfortunate men who fell 
under Braddock and Grant. This was done with all 
possible honors, and it is said that every one assisted 
in the work from the commanders down to the private 
soldiers, some of whom had been comrades of the de- 
ceased. The next duty was to put the fort in a defen- 
sible condition. This was soon done, and it was named 
Fort Pitt, in honor of the famous English minister. 
A great and busy city now occupies the place where so 
many Indian raids were planned, and where so many 



86 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

brave men laid down their lives. The railroad brake- 
man calls out "Braddock's" as the express train 
rushes past the field of the terrible defeat about ten 
miles from Pittsburgh, and even now bullets are some- 
times cut out of trees and fragments of arms or bits of 
bone are ploughed up in the fields. 

Thus ended for the time the trials and dangers of 
Western Virginia. The Indians, no longer stirred up 
and sustained by the French, ceased to be troublesome. 
They began to make friendly advances toward their 
English neighbors, and a peace was soon concluded 
with them, which they observed as well as could 
reasonably be expected. Settlers once more poured 
into the beautiful and fertile Shenandoah Valley. 
People who had abandoned their farms went back to 
them once more, and old Lord Fairfax might disarm 
his little garrison at Greenway Court, and henceforth 
pursue his foxes and entertain his friends in peace. 

Washington now had leisure to follow out his own 
plans. The necessity for his services in the army 
existed no longer, since there was peace in the borders. 
He had always been fond of a quiet life in his ho"me 
at Mount Vernon, and he was likely to find it hence- 
forth pleasanter than ever. He resigned his military 
commission, and on the sixth of January, 1759, he 
w^as married at the White House to Mrs. Martha 
Custis. The marriage was a happy one in every 
respect. 

During his last campaign in the wilderness, Wash- 
ington had been elected a member of the House of 
Burgesses. When he took his seat for the first time, 



TAKING OF FORT DUQUESXE. 87 

he was received with the greatest demonstrations of 
respect by his fellow-members, and Mr. Robinson, the 
speaker, thanked him warmly for the services he had 
rendered to the Commonwealth. Washington rose to 
reply, but was so overcome that he colored and stam- 
mered like a school-boy, and was unable to utter a 
word. " Sit down, Mr. Washington," said the speaker ; 
" your modesty equals your valor, and that surpasses 
the power of any language I possess !" 

I have been somewhat particular in tracing Wash- 
ington's early career, in order to show that he did not 
become a great commander all at once, as some people 
seem to suppose. He had a long previous training, 
and made the most of his opportunities. The mathe- 
matics so needful for an officer he learned by steady 
painstaking industry in a small country school. When 
he was first appointed to a military command, at the 
age of nineteen, he went to work in the same sober, 
painstaking sj^irit to qualify himself for his new duties, 
by learning military tactics and fencing. From his 
first appointment in 1751 to his marriage in 1759, he 
was almost constantly under arms, and that in a 
sei-vice far more trying to the patience and temper of 
a young man than any ordinary warfare. During all 
this time he seems to have been in a kind of school to 
prepare him for the great responsibilities which were 
afterward to fall upon him. The best way to learn to 
do anything is to do it, and it is by faithfully working 
at small tasks that men learn to accomplish large ones. 
There have been many men in the world of far more 
splendid talents than Washington, who have done 



88 WASHINGTON- AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

nothing but harm. Washington's greatness lay in his 
faithfulness in doing his duty in that state of life to 
which it pleased God to call him, and that is a great- 
ness which is within the power of every one. Wash- 
ington was deeply and soberly religious, and, as may 
be seen by his letters, lived in a state of habitual de- 
pendence upon God, and to him the promise was made 
good, " He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart ; 
who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn 
deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the 
Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salva- 
tion."* 

* Ps. xxiv. 4, 5. 



CHAPTER VI. 

LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON — BEGINNING OF THE WAR. 

TTTASHINGTON remained about three months at 
' ' the White House, the residence of his wife, and 
then, returning to Mount Vernon, he settled down to 
that quiet home life which was always his delight. 
The estate was both fertile and beautiful, and gave 
abundant scope for those experiments in farming to 
which he was always greatly given. There was also 
plenty of room for the out-of-door sports — the fox- 
hunting, fishing, shooting and riding, of which he was 
very fond, and in which he continued to take pleasure 
as long as he lived. It has been a kind of fashion to 
represent this great man as one who never unbent, and 
who took no pleasure in any of the ordinary relaxa- 
tions and amusements of life. On the contrary, AVash- 
ington enjoyed not only the field sports which I have 
mentioned, but also the exercise of a large and some- 
what splendid hospitality. Mrs. Washington had her 
chariot and four, with servants in livery, as the fashion 
then was, for church-going and ceremonious visiting, 
and her saddle horses for less important occasions. 
AVashington himself always rode on horseback. Nor 
was he above caring for the pleasures of those depen- 
dent on him. We find him sending to his London 

(89) 



90 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

agent, Mr. C^ry, a long invoice of various matters 
needed for the large establishment at Mount Vernon. 
The list ends with " six little books and ten shillings 
of toys for Master Custis, six years old," and " a fash- 
ionably-dressed baby, worth ten shillings, and ten shil- / 
lings worth of other toys" for Miss Patty, aged four./ (^^ 
I like to think of the arrival of the ship which con-/ 
tained these goods — of the excitement of servants and 
children, as Washington superintended the unj^acking 
— of the noisy delight of the black people over their 
respective presents — the ecstasy of the little lady over 
her doll, and the probably somewhat more restrained 
and critical approbation of tlie lady of the house over 
her " salmon-colored tabby velvet, with satin flowers," 
and the " cap kerchief, tucker and ruffles of Brussels 
or point, proper to wear with the same." No doubt, 
too, the children, both black and white, had reason to 
rejoice in the pound of barley sugar and the fifteen 
pounds of rock candy which were included in the same 
list. Rock candy was then esteemed a sovereign remedy 
for a cold, and was also often used to sweeten tea and 
coffee. 

It was the usual custom of the Virginia planters to 
leave their affairs very much to the management of 
their overseers — a practice which gave rise to much 
excess and many serious abuses. This was not the 
way at Mount Vernon. Washington was his own 
overseer, his own clerk and accountant, and his books 
and accounts were as neat and methodical as those of 
any bank. Consequently, he was well served, and his 
estate became noted for the excellence of its products. 



LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON. 91 

It is said, on good authority, that the West India flour 
inspectors used to pass without examination the barrels 
marked with the name of George Washington. 

Life at Mount Vernon went on with great reguLarity. 
Washington was a very early riser, and was often up 
before break of day in winter, when he was accustomed 
to repair to his study, light his own fire and candles, 
and write or read till breakfast was ready. His own 
breakfast consisted of tea and hoe cakes. He usually 
spent his whole morning in visiting his fields and 
workshops. Dinner was served at two — a fashionably 
late hour for those days. Washington was a hearty, 
but by no means a particular eater. He was a great tea- 
drinker, and consumed unnumbered cups, which, how- 
ever, were probably very small — not much larger than 
half a goose egg. He spent the evening with the fam- 
ily, and generally went to bed about nine o'clock. On 
Sunday the whole family went to church, Vv'hen the 
roads and the weather permitted, the ladies riding in 
the chariot, while Washington accompanied them on 
horseback. They usually attended Pohick Church, 
about seven miles away, Avhich had lately been rebuilt, 
mostly at Washington's expense, and on a plan of his 
own. Both he and his wife were communicants of the 
Episcopal Church. 

Washington was a kind and thoughtful, but an exact 
master, never overworking his servants, but tolerating 
no idleness or carelessness among them. At one time 
we find him overlooking some negroes who were hew- 
ing and squaring timber, and whom he thought some- 
what too leisurely in their operations. He sat down 



92 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

by them, and taking out his watch, he observed how 
much work they were able to execute while he was 
looking on, and regulated their future tasks accord- 
ingly. At one time we find him working with Peter, 
the blacksmith, at the model of a newly-contrived 
plough, which, by the way, did not prove altogether 
a success. At another time he turned out, with his 
men, in a furious thunder storm, to strengthen the dam 
of a mill, which seemed likely to give way, and again 
we find him chastising, with some vigor, a vagabond 
duck-shooter and trespasser, who had ventured to raise 
his gun at him. He spent a good deal of time in field 
sports, especially in fox-hunting, and kept many horses 
and dogs, the names of which are entered in his house- 
hold books with as much care as those of his negroes. 
Sometimes Mr. and Mrs. Washington visited Annapolis, 
and took part in the gayeties which abounded during 
the sittings of the Legislature, and to which, when the 
roads were bad, the young ladies of the country about 
used to come " riding on horseback, with their hoops 
arranged fore and aft, like lateen sails." 

Washington had no children of his own, but he was 
devotedly attached to the children of his wife, and 
spent much time and pains in the business of their 
education. He was judge of the county and member 
of the House of Burgesses, and he never allowed his 
private affairs to interfere with his attention to public 
business. He was much interested in a project to drain 
the Dismal Swamp, a frightful wilderness thirty miles 
long by ten wide, abounding in wild beasts and poison- 
ous reptiles. In the centre was a pond or lake, six 



LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON. 93 

miles long and three broad. The remainder was covered 
with heavy forests, quaking bogs and brushwood, over- 
grown with thorny vines and brambles. Washington 
explored this wilderness both on lOot and on horseback, 
and came to the conclusion that it might be reclaimed 
and made fit for the use of man. 

In the month of May, 1763, the famous Indian war 
called Pontiac's conspiracy broke out, and for a time 
the frontiers were again laid waste. The outstanding 
settlements were ravaged with fire and sword, a num- 
ber of small forts were taken, and both Detroit and 
Fort Pitt were for some time in imminent danger. 
Pontiac himself was an Ottawa chief, a man of great 
genius, but he had no materials with which to carry 
on a regular war. The Indians who joined him quar- 
relled among themselves. Tlie great Iroquois league 
refused (it is said by the influence of Sir AVilliam 
Johnson) to join the conspiracy, and at last tranquillity 
was restored. Those who wish to learn more of this 
part of American history, will do well to read Mr. 
Parkman's interesting volume, "The Conspiracy of 
Pontiac." Washington, not being in any military com- 
mand, remained quietly at home, busy with his grand 
project of draining the Dismal Swamp, — a project 
which he was never to see completed. 

But events were brewing which were destined to 
call our hero's thoughts away from drains and patent 
ploughs, and all that agricultural business in which 
his soul delighted. A darker cloud of war was rising 
in the horizon than that which had just descended on 
the frontier. 



94 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

" Thicker and thicker the hot mist grew, 
Pierced by the liglitning through and through ; 
And muffled growls, like the growls of a beast, 
Ran over the sky from west to east." 

I do not propose to write a history of the American 
war, but a memoir of Washington ; nevertheless, it 
seems necessary to give a sketch of the principal causes 
which led to the struggle. 

The colonies of America, especially those of New 
England, had small reason to love the mother country ; 
nevertheless they had always shown a great deal of 
affection and reverence for her, but they were at the 
same time very jealous of any encroachment upon 
their rights. They wished to be treated as children — 
grown-up, indeed, and able to take care of themselves, 
but still as children, disposed to pay all dutiful regard 
and obedience to a parent. This feeling had never 
been returned. England seemed disposed to make 
them feel all the restraints and burdens while she 
accorded them none of the privileges of children. 
She was the hard and unjust stepdame of the fairy 
tale. In a speech in the English Parliament, Mr. 
Grenville said that the Americans ought not to object 
to assist in paying the debts of the English Govern- 
ment, since they were "children of their planting, 
nourished by their indulgence, and protected by their 
arms till they had grown up to a good degree of 
strength and opulence." This fine piece of sentiment 
brought to his feet Colonel Barre, always a friend of 
the colonies. " Children planted by your care !" said 
he. "No, your oppression planted them in America. 



LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON. 95 

They fled from your tyranny into a then uncultivated 
land, where they were exposed to all the hardships to 
which humanity is liable. Nourished by your indul- 
gence ! No, they grew by your neglect. AVhen you 
began to care about them, that care was exercised by 
sending people to rule over them whose behavior in 
many cases caused the blood of those sons of liberty 
to boil within them. They protected by your arms ! 
They have nobly taken up arms in your defence ; have 
exerted their valor amidst a constant and laborious 
industry for the defence of a country the interior of 
which, Avhile its frontiers were drenched with blood, has 
yielded up all its little savings to your enlargement." 

Nor was Colonel Barre the only man to plead the 
cause of America. Lord Chatham and others spoke 
eloquently in the same strain, but all in vain. Op- 
pressive and vexatious restraints were every day multi- 
plied to embarrass and cripple the commerce of the 
colonies. They were allowed to send their produce 
nowhere but to England, to import all sorts of Euro- 
pean goods only from Eugland, instead of from the 
countries where they were produced, and even the 
trade between America and the mother country was 
subject to duties. The colonies, particularly Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut, had begun several manu- 
factures, as those of iron, woollen cloths and hats. 
These were sedulously discouraged and broken down. 
The colonists were called to endure a host of petty, but 
constantly-recurring, vexations, not the least of which 
seems to have been the stupid arrogance and bad man- 
ners of the English officials and army officers many 



96 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

of whom treated the natives of the country— in a large 
number of cases as well born and better educated than 
themselves — with undisguised contempt. 

"Many people forgive injuries, — nobody forgives 
contempt," says Franklin, speaking on this very sub- 
ject, and certainly it requires a good deal of grace to 
do so. Boston, and the colonies of Massachusetts and 
C'onnecticut, being most deeply engaged in commerce, 
were most exposed to suffer under these petty and 
contemptible tyrannies, and the fire kindled by them, 
though still smouldering, communicated its warmth to 
the other colonies. This was a fact which the English 
rulers did not understand or believe, till they were 
forced to do so by " the unanswerable logic of facts." 

But the chief vexation of the American colonies 
was that they were taxed without being repre- 
sented. It was not, as some English w^riters have 
not been ashamed to say, that they were too stingy to 
pay their share of the expense incurred by the late 
French and Indian war. They conceived that they 
had already paid their share, not only by contributing 
as much money as could reasonably be expected, but 
by giving their best blood, which had been poured out 
like water in the cause. It is astounding to read that 
America during the war raised twenty-five thousand 
men all at her own expense. Most of the inconve- 
nience of that war fell on America. No Englishman 
slept the less secure for the fear of a French invasion. 
But no American colonist at any considerable distance 
from the great towns could see his children put to bed 
without fear of their being scalped and murdered be- 



LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON. 97 

fore morning. Hundreds of families perished in this 
way, and hundreds more were carried into captivity, 
worse than death. The British Government admitted 
these facts at the time, though they were so ready to 
forget them afterward. 

From the first year of the existence of the cok)nies, 
they had insisted on the principle that they could be 
taxed only by their own legislators, elected and em- 
powered by themselves. Sir Robert Walpole, one of 
the most celebrated of British ministers, said " It must 
be a bolder man than himself, and one less friendly to 
commerce, who should venture on such an expedient." 
But the ministers who followed him were not so wise 
as himself One piece of oppression followed another. 
The merchants of Boston and Philadeli^hia, who were 
the chief sufferers, remonstrated in temperate and re- 
spectful language, and sent Franklin to England to 
be their agent. They could not have made a better 
choice. He was then fifty-two years old, a man uni- 
versally respected at home and abroad, simple in his 
tastes, courteous and polished in his manners, pos- 
sessed of an immovable temper, and wit which has 
seldom or never been surpassed. He had been in 
England before, and had made many friends while in 
that country. But all his wit and wisdom were un- 
availing, as were the remonstrances and appeals of 
Lord Chatham and other enlightened men. Mr. Gren- 
ville, " a man great in daring and little in views," as 
one of his own contemporaries calls him, was deter- 
mined to distinguish himself, and he succeeded. In 
March, 1765, was passed the famous Stamp Act. By 
7 



98 WA SUING TON AND SE VFNTl '- SIX. 

tliis Act it was j)i*ovided that do written instrumeut 
whatever, no deed, mortgage, note of hand, marriage 
certificate, will or receipt, could be of any value unless 
written 'on stamjoed paper, to be purchased of British 
agents appointed for that purpose. What w^as still 
worse, any offence against the Act could be tried in 
any royal marine or admiralty court in any part of 
the colonies, which was much the same as if an offence 
against the revenue laws in St. Louis should be tried 
by a court martial in Maine. Not a young lady could 
be married, — not an old gentleman could make his 
will, nor so much as a newspaper could be exposed for 
sale, without a government stamp. It was certainly 
an ingeniously-devised tax, inasmuch as it fell upon 
everybody, from the highest to the lowest. But it 
remained to be seen whether the collection of the tax 
would not, as the saying is, " cost more than it came to." 
The people of America were not disposed to sit down 
quietly under such a bold infringement of their libei-- 
ties. There was an instant stir all over the colonies. 
It was in the Virginia Assembly that Mr. Patrick 
Henry made his celebrated speech in which he said 
very significantly, " Csesar had his Brutus, Charles 
the First his Cromwell, and George the Third" — here 
he was interrupted by cries of " Treason ! treason !" 
He waited a moment, and then added, wdth flashing 
eyes, "may profit by their example. If this be trea- 
son, make the most of it." Tlie Massachusetts peo})le 
did not say a great deal, but they thought and acted 
the more. Agreements were entered into among mer- 
chants and their customers not to purchase any goods 



LIFE AT MOUNT VERKOX. 99 

of English manufacture. As a part of this plan peo- 
ple left off wearing mourning, and many thousands of 
pounds' worth of mourning goods were sent back to 
England as unsalable. Young people who were en- 
gaged put off their weddings indefinitely rather than 
have their wedding certificates written on the hateful 
stamped paper — a fact which did not tend to make the 
act more popular. In order to increase the stock of 
wool, it was agreed that no more lambs should be killed 
for food. People took a pride in wearing their old 
clothes over and over again,* and the most elegant 
ladies appeared at church in homespun. A mob of 
people hung in effigy Mr. Oliver, the first stamp agent, 
broke into his house and thoroughly destroyed its con- 
tents. A few days afterward they treated the house of 
Governor Hutchinson in the same way, destroying fur- 
niture, pictures and plates, and worst of all, a noble 
library, and a valuable collection of papers relating to 
the history of the colonies, which Hutchinson was 
engaged in writing. Nothing could excuse such sense- 
less violence, and at a town meeting called next day 
these lawless proceedings were utterly disavowed and 
strongly condemned by a unanimous vote. The Gov- 
ernor, who was certainly not wanting in courage, then 
took charge of the stamps himself, but nobody came 

* In Franklin's examination before the House of Commons in 
1766, this passage occurs: — 

Q, " What used to be the pride of the Americans ?" 

A. " To indulge in the fashions and manufactures of Great 
Britain." 

Q. " What is now their pride ?" 

A. " To wear their old clothes till thev can make new ones." 



100 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

to buy. It was the same in other places. Nobody 
would purchase the stamps even when anybody could 
be found bold enough to sell them, and business all 
over the country was almost at a standstill. 

Some time before the Stamp Act went into execution 
the General Court of Massachusetts had sent out let- 
ters to the other colonies inviting them to send dele- 
gates to a Congress which should assemble at New 
York in October, 1766. At the appointed time dele- 
gates came together from nine colonies. Georgia, 
North Carolina and Virginia were not rej^resented, not 
from any want of sympathy with the common cause, 
but because the invitations came too late to be acted 
upon by the assemblies of these colonies. A most 
temperate and respectful address was sent to the king, 
and a petition to both Houses of Parliament. Frank- 
lin, who was in England, was called before the House 
of Commons, and gave it as his opinion that the people 
of America w^ould never, under any circumstances, 
submit to the Stamp Act. He did not see how any 
military force could be applied to carry the act into 
execution, because such a force would find nobody 
under arms. " They cannot force a man to take stamps 
who chooses to do without them," said he; and added, 
w4th somewhat grim significance, "They will not find 
a rebellion ; they may indeed make one !" 

At last in 1766 the act was repealed, but so ungra- 
ciously and with such reservations, as to make the 
repeal of very little value, especially as it only made 
way for other taxes quite as oppressive and vexatious. 
Above all, the main grievance was left untouched. 



LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON. 101 

"The king is the legislator of the colonies," said Lord 
Grenville to Doctor Franklin. "The colonies will 
raise no money but by the acts of their own assem- 
blies," said the Americans. Duties were laid upon 
glass, paints, pasteboard and tea, which last was com- 
ing into very general use. Oppressive powers of search 
and seizure were put into the hands of naval officers. 
The colonists were required to furnish the troops sent 
from England with fire, beds and other necessaries, at 
their own expense. 

Boston was considered the hotbed of sedition, and 
two royal regiments were sent out from Halifax to 
overcome the inhabitants of that rebellious town. 
Commodore Hood's ships transported them, and the 
Commodore expected great things from their presence. 
"Had this force been landed in Boston six months 
ago," he writes, "I am perfectly persuaded no address 
or remonstrance would have been sent from the other 
colonies, and that all would have been orderly and 
quiet throughout America." It is strange to see how 
thoroughly the English forgot that they had people of 
English blood to deal with, and English blood with its 
natural hatred of oppression, strengthened by more 
than a century of practical independence. 

The troops arrived and found anything but a friendly 
reception. The selectmen refused to find quarters for 
them; the town council would provide no barracks. 
It was resolved to quarter some of them in the State- 
house and others in Faneuil Hall. To make the insult 
to the colony more conspicuous and exasperating, they 
marched into the town on Sunday with drums beating 



102 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

and colors flying and all the noise and parade of war. 
The people, however provoked, kept themselves quiet 
within doors, and the men took up their quarters with- 
out opposition. Commodore Hood wrote to Grenville 
that " the worst was past and the spirit of sedition 
broken." 

He never was more mistaken in his life. The vol- 
cano was smouldering, and there were plenty of signs 
to tell any sagacious eye that the eruption was only 
delayed. The soldiers and their officers were treated 
with the utmost coldness and neglect. Nobody would 
buy any English goods. Broken windows were re- 
paired with old paper, and the fine ladies and gentle- 
men set the fashions of wearing homespun and drink- 
ing sage and cider instead of tea and wine. The Eng- 
lish merchants began to complain bitterly and to weary 
Parliament with petitions for the repeal of the obnox- 
ious taxes. Lord North became Prime Minister, and 
under his administration all the obnoxious taxes were 
repealed, with the exception of the tax upon tea. This 
was a fatal exception, since it proved the rule against 
which the colonies were contending. Let it be always 
remembered that it was not to paying taxes, as such, 
that our fathers contended, but against paying taxes 
imposed without their consent. This was represented 
again and again, but in vain. Lord North and his 
master, George the Third, refused to yield. The king, 
a well-meaning but weak man, was like most w^eak 
people, extremely obstinate. He had the notion firmly 
fixed in his head that to give way to the wishes of the 
colonies would be to endanger the safety of the whole 



LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON. 103 

realm. "A total repeal cannot be thought of till 
America is prostrate at our feet," said Lord North, 
and he really thought he had said a fine thing. 

But America was by no means inclined to lie pros- 
trate at the feet of anybody. On the very day the act 
above mentioned was pressed, a serious scufile occurred 
between the military posted in Boston and some young 
men and boys, in which four persons were killed and 
several w^ounded. This occurrence has been called 
" The Boston Massacre," a name it hardly deserved, 
since it would seem that the troops only acted in self- 
defence, but it had very serious consequences. The 
news flew throughout the country, everywhere increas- 
ing the general exasperation. The political sky grew 
darker and darker. People absolutely refiised to touch 
the taxed tea. The merchants would not buy it, and 
the East India Company, finding it left on their hands, 
determined to try exporting it on their own account. 
They sent large cargoes to Boston, New York, New 
Jersey and other places, but without success. At New 
York and Philadelphia such representations were made 
to the captains of the tea-ships that, like sensible men, 
they quietly carried their cargoes home again. At Green- 
wich, New Jersey, where a quantity of tea was landed, 
the chests were taken out into the fields at night, piled 
up and burned in the most orderly manner, while the 
people of the village looked on. At Boston some fifty 
men, disguised as Indians, went on board the tea-ships, 
broke up the chests and emptied the tea into the har- 
bor, while the ship's oflicers looked helplessly on. The 
work being thorough. ly done, the men quietly dis- 



104 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

persed. Nobody knew who they were, and nobody 
knows with any certainty to this day. 

The destruction of the tea was followed by the 
passage of the odious Boston Port Bill, for though tea 
had been refused and destroyed in other places, Boston 
was considered the prime mover of sedition. This bill 
in effect put an end at one blow to the whole com- 
merce of Boston. No vessel, unless loaded either with 
food or fuel, was to remain in the harbor for six hours. 
All lading and unlading of goods, wares and merchan- 
dise was to cease in the harbor after the 4th of June, 
1773. Nor was this all. Another act so altered the 
charter of the province, that all councillors, judges and 
magistrates were to be appointed by the king, and hold 
office only at the royal pleasure. Another act pro- 
vided that any person indicted for murder or other 
capital offence might be sent to some other colony, or 
to Great Britain for trial. 

The ministry hoped by these extreme and oppres- 
sive measures to break the spirit of the Boston people, 
and also to divide the colonies ; but they little understood 
the people with whom they were dealing. Provisions 
were sent into Boston from every quarter. The people 
from Marblehead and Salem offered the use of their 
wharves and warehouses to the Boston merchants. 
More significant still Avas the fact, that the day on 
which the odious Port Bill was to go into operation 
was appointed to be observed as a day of fasting and 
prayer by all the colonies. A second congress was 
called at New York, of which Peyton Randolph was 
chosen president. They agreed on a declaration of 



LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON. 105 

right, an address to the king and one to the colonies, 
and broke up, after a sitting of eight weeks, advising 
that another congress should be called in the spring. 

General Gage meantime had been made Governor, 
in place of poor Hutchinson. No great things were 
expected of him by either side. William Smith, the 
historian, told Mr. Adams that Gage was a good- 
natured, peaceable, sociable man, but altogether unfit 
for a Governor of Massachusetts, and predicted that 
he would dwindle down into a mere scribbling 
governor — like Bernard or Hutchinson. But Gage 
was to have very little time for scribbling. He 
showed at once that he did not understand the people 
with whom he had to deal. " The Americans will be 
lions only so long as the English were lambs," said he. 
And yet Gage had lived long with Americans, and had 
fought with them on the disastrous field of Braddock's 
defeat and elsewhere. It seemed as if all the British 
ofiicials were striken blind and stupid so soon as they 
had anything to do with American officers. Gage 
thought he could keep Massachusetts in awe with five 
regiments ; but no force had yet been found able to 
keep Massachusetts in awe. His very first efil)rt3 
were met in a way which ought to have convinced him 
of his error. A paper was at once circulated through- 
out the province bearing the name of " a solemn league 
and covenant," and pledging the subscribers to break 
off all intercourse with Great Britain from the first of 
August, 1773, till the rights of the colony should be 
restored ; and they also engaged to break off all inter- 
course with those who would not sign the compact. 



106 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

General Gage was somewhat startled, and thought 
it time to begin the awe-inspiring process of which he 
had spoken. He issued a proclamation denouncing 
the " solemn league and covenant " as illegal and 
traitorous, and encamped a force of cavalry and artil- 
lery on Boston Common. An alarm that Boston was 
to be blockaded spread through the country round 
about, and the inhabitants sent word to the people to 
stand firm, promising them all sorts of assistance. 
Gage proceeded to fortify the Neck, as it was called, — 
the isthmus which connected Boston with the main 
land — laid violent hands upon arms and ammunition 
belonging to the province, and sent out various orders, 
warnings and proclamations, which he might as well 
have spared. The people went quietly and soberly on 
their own way, appointing committees of safety and 
supplies, putting what ammunition remained to them 
in places of security, raising and drilling troops, and 
vigilantly watching the motions of the Governor. 
Powder and ball, and other munitions of war, were 
constantly smuggled out of Boston in manure carts, in 
hay-wagons, in the baskets and under the cloaks of 
market-women, and passed unsuspected under the very 
noses of the British guard. Ladies of eminence and 
fashion went to the entertainments of the Governor and 
his officers, and made much of these occasions to collect 
intelligence, which they sent to their patriot friends in 
the city. A great number of patriots left the city, and 
carried off their valuables with them ; others who were 
not allowed to do so made use of their detention to 
keep a vigilant eye on the Governor's movements. 



ill d&. 




LIFE AT MOUXT VERXOX. 107 

The thunder-cloucl of war thickened every day, aud 
on the nineteenth of April, 1775, the first bolt fell. 
Gage had now about three thousand five hundred men 
under his command, and he determined to strike a 
decisive blow\ The patriots had accumulated a large 
quantity of military stores of all kinds at Concord, a 
town about twenty miles from Boston. General Gage 
heard of this depot, and determined to destroy it. For 
this purpose he sent about eight hundred men, under 
Lieutenant-Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn. The 
troops marched at midnight, and every precaution to 
ensure secrecy was observed, but in vain. Sharp eyes 
were on them, and sharp ears had caught up a word 
here and there, which revealed the Governor's purpose. 
It is said that the signal was given by a lantern hung 
in the tower of the old North Church, in Boston. 
Paul Revere and William Dawes were sent across the 
river to Lexington, with a message to Mr. Adams and 
Mr. Hancock, and they rode post haste, alarming the 
sleeping farms and villages as they galloped along. 
The two patriot gentlemen were lodging in the house 
of the Rev. Mr. Clarke, and the minute men on guard 
refused the messengers admission, on the ground that 
the family could not be disturbed by noise. 

" Noise !" said Revere. " You will have noise enough 
presently. The British are coming." 

The alarm was now given in every direction, and 
the minute men, as they were called, hastened, singly 
or in groups, toward the field of action. The first skir- 
mish took place at Lexington, eleven miles from Bos- 
ton. As Major Pitcairn approached the place, the 



108 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

ringing of bells and beating of drums warned him that 
his purpose was known. He found about one hundred 
militiamen assembled on the village green. As the 
overwhelming force of the British approached, the 
militia stood still, for they had been ordered not to 
fire first. The two forces stood at bay, as it were, for 
a moment. Then Pitcairn and his officers galloped 
forward, waving their swords and crying out : " Dis- 
perse, you villains! Lay down your arms!" Some 
random shots were fired, nobody knew by whom, and 
then Pitcairn discharged his pistol, and gave the word 
" Fire." A general discharge followed. Three British 
soldiers and eight Americans were killed. The pa- 
triots were dispersed, and took refuge behind walls and 
buildings, and the British, in high spirits, marched on 
to Concord. They reached the town about seven 
o'clock, and entered it in two divisions, and at once 
proceeded to the work for which they had been sent 
out. But the people had worked with such expedition 
in concealing and carrying away the stores, that they 
found very little to do. They destroyed or disabled 
three cannon, broke open some barrels of flour and 
burned two or three barrels of wooden spoons ! They 
also cut down the liberty pole and set the court-house 
on fire, but the conflagration was promptly arrested by 
Mrs. Moulton with a few pails of water. 

Having disabled the cannon and burned up the 
spoons of His Majesty's rebellious subjects. Colonel 
Smith and Major Pitcairn began to think of returning. 
But this was not to be so easy. The Americans had 
no notion of obeying the proverb which says that one 



LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON. 109 

should build a golden bridge for a flying enemy. The 
minute men had flocked in from every side, and every 
man who owned a gun had it in his hand. Every 
stone wall, barn and tree covered hosts of enemies — 
sharpshooters, fighting Indian fashion, every man 
for his own hand. The regulars were hemmed in on 
all sides, and shot down without a chance of retalia- 
tion by foes who seemed as one of the British officers 
remarked " to drop from the clouds." An express was 
sent to General Gage, acquainting him with the state 
of the case, and Lord Percy, with nine hundred men 
and two field pieces, was sent out to meet the retreat- 
ing regulars. He did not come a minute too soon, for 
the men were utterly worn out, so that an English 
ofl[icer said, " They threw themselves down and panted 
like dogs." After a few minutes of rest and refresh- 
ment, Lord Percy started on his homeward way. The 
militia still hung upon the British rear, and many 
men were picked oflT. The British in return fired 
barns and dwellings, and killed several non-combatants. 
The Cambridge bridge had been taken up, and Lord 
Percy was obliged to take a more circuitous route. 
At last the weary, enraged and dispirited troops 
reached Charlestown, and the next day returned to 
their quarters in Boston. Their loss was sixty-five 
killed, one hundred and eighty wounded, and twenty- 
nine prisoners. The Americans had fifty-nine killed, 
thirty-nine wounded, and five missing. Thus ended 
the first scene of the war which was to last so many 
years. The fight was fairly begun. 

Meantime Washington was staying quietly at home, 



110 WASHING TON AND SE VENTY-SIX. 

managing his family affairs and doing his duty in the 
offices to which he had been appointed. He was from 
the first a thorough-going patriot, sympathizing heartily 
with the Boston people in their troubles ; and he did 
his best by precept and example, especially by many 
w^ell-written and weighty letters, to promote non-impor- 
tation. In 1769 Lord Botetourt, a gentleman of 
amiable manners and good intentions, came out to Vir- 
ginia as Governor. He seems to have been as desirous 
to conciliate as Gage was to conquer by force, but , he 
was to have no better success than Gage himself The 
very first time the Legislature of Virginia was con- 
vened, the members took u]3 the cause of their suffering 
brethren in Boston, and sent an address of respectful 
but decided remonstrance directly to the king. Lord 
Botetourt dissolved the House the next day. The 
members repaired to a private dwelling. Washington 
brought forward articles of association, from which an 
instrument was drawn up, the signers whereof pledged 
themselves solemnly to use no articles of British man- 
ufacture. The pledge was at once circulated through 
all the Southern colonies, and strictly adhered to. The 
Virginia ladies sent for no more salmon-colored tabby 
velvet or Brussels heads ; the gentlemen wore their old 
clothes, and the little girls must play with rag or corn- 
cob babies instead of London wax babies dressed in 
the newest fashions, such as had gladdened the eyes of 
poor little Patty Custis. The drawing up of this 
pledge seems to have been the first active step taken 
by Washington in the cause to which he was to devote 
the best years of his life. He still kept up his friend- 



L TFE A T MO UNT VERNON. Ill 

ship with Lord Botetourt, xsho seems to have been a 
candid and sensible man. He examined for himself 
the causes of difference bet^veen the colonies and the 
mother country, became a strenuous advocate of the 
repeal of taxes, and meantime endeared himself to 
every one by his kind and gracious manners. If all 
English governors had been like his lordship, matters 
might have turned out very differently. 

About this time Washington made an expedition to 
the Ohio River, for the purpose of exploring the lands 
which had been granted by Governor Dinwiddie to the 
soldiers enoao-ed in the last war. It was an arduous 
journey, and not without danger, for the Indians were 
by no means peacefully disposed, either among them- 
selves or toward the whites. Nevertheless Washing- 
ton seems to have enjoyed the journey extremely. He 
set out in company with his life-long friend, Dr. Craik, 
and two or three negro servants. They stopped at 
Fort Pitt, where they found about twenty log houses — 
the beginning of the present city of Pittsburgh. They 
visited old Colonel Croghan, a famous Indian trader 
and fighter, and a comrade of the old French Avar. 
Here Washington met with several chiefs of the 
Iroquois, or Six Nations, with whom he interchanged 
speeches and civilities of the most elegant and ceremo- 
nious character, no doubt. The principal personage 
presented him wdth a "speech belt" of w^ampum, which 
was accepted w^ith thanks, and the party separated the 
best of friends. At Fort Pitt the travellers left their 
horses, and taking a canoe, descended the Ohio as far 
as the Great Kanawha. Here Washington was vis- 



112 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX, 

ited by a very old chief, who had been among those 
who effected the destruction of Braddock's army. The 
old man declared that he and his young men had fired 
many times at Washington as he rode about the field 
of battle, but always without success, from which they 
concluded that the young soldier bore a charmed life 
and was under the special protection of the Great 
Spirit.* 

On Washington's return he found that the popular 
ferments, which had been in some degree allayed by 
the amiable manners and wise policy of Lord Boute- 
tourt, W'Cre again roused to full activity. That noble- 
man had died of a fever, and was succeeded by Lord 
Dunmore, a person of a very different stamp. Lord 
Dunmore began his administration by making a grave 
mistake. He had been Governor of New York, and 
when appointed to Virginia he lingered some months 
amid the gayeties of the city, and sent his secretary, 
Colonel Foy, to attend to business till he should find 
it convenient to come himself, appointing him fees and 
a salary to be paid by the colonists. This was the 
first offence, and when he himself appeared, the haughti- 
ness of his manners gave great offence to the high- 
spirited Virginians. The first act of the Assembly 
was to inquire into the action of the Governor in 
appropriating to his secretary fees and a salary with- 
out consulting them. Lord Dunmore had the sense 

*" It is a curious fact that recklessly as Washington always ex- 
posed himself in battle, he never had a wound, though it is said 
the superstitious Hessians often shot at him with silver bullets 
in the hope of wounding him. 



LIFE A T MO UNT VERNON. 113 

to rescind the act, but the Assembly proved so unman- 
ageable that he soon dismissed them to their homes. 
Again and again the Assembly was prorogued, but at 
last the Governor was obliged to convene them in 
1773. He did not find them any more manageable 
than before. In this Assembly was proposed the plan 
of "corresponding committees," whose business it 
should be to obtain the most clear and authentic in- 
telligence of all such acts and resolutions of the 
British Parliament or proceedings of administration 
as may relate to or affect the British colonies, and to 
maintain with their sister colonies a correspondence 
and communication. The plan was at once adopted 
by the other colonies, and was found very useful. 

Washington was one of the most active members of 
the Assembly ; nevertheless he continued on good terms 
with Lord Dunmore, who had the sense to sec the 
value of such a man's friendship. It was even arranged 
that Washington should accompany Lord Dunmore 
on a tour through the provinces, especially along the 
w estern frontier. But the plan Avas interrupted by a 
very sad occurrence. This was the death by consump- 
tion of Miss Pat/y Custis, at the age of seventeen. 
She had always been rather a delicate girl, and during 
Washington's absence at the Virginia Assembly she 
grew suddenly and alarmingly worse. On his return 
he found her almost in the last stages of the disease. 
It was a great afl?liction, for he had no children, and 
had always cherished those of his wife as his own. 
Overwhelmed with grief, he knelt by the bedside and 
offered the most earnest prayer fur her recovery. But 



114 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

it was not to be. Poor little Patty died on the 19th 
of June, 1773, leaving her mother only one child, 
John Parke Custis. This youth seems to have given 
his stepfather some uneasiness, not by any vice, from 
which he seems to have been remarkably free, but by 
indulging in somewhat idle and desultory habits, and 
especially by his ignorance of and indifference to the 
study of mathematics. It was not long before the 
youth fell in love with and engaged himself to Mi?-s 
Barbara Calvert, an amiable young lady, daughter of 
a gentleman in the neighborhood. There was no 
objection to the match except the youth of the parties. 
Washington proposed that young Custis should go to 
college for a time, and himself took him to Ncav York 
and placed him at King's (now Columbia) College. 
But it was all in vain. The young gentleman could 
not give his mind to his studies ; his mother was anx- 
ious to see him settled. Washington wisely withdrew 
his objection, and the young people were married. 

Meantime the Boston tea-party had taken place, 
and the Boston Port Bill carried into effect. As I 
have said, the day was kept throughout all the colo- 
nies as a day of fasting and prayer. Everywhere the 
bells were tolled, the churches were throAvn open, and 
many sermons were preached. Doubtless, too, many 
sincere and earnest prayers went up to the God of 
nations and of armies. Washington has recorded, in 
his diary, that he went twice to church, and fasted 
rigidly all day. It is an omen of serious import 
when men of English race begin their contests by 
fasting and prayer, as the English rulers might have 



L IFE A T MO UNT VERNON. 115 

remembered, but they seem to have been utterly- 
blinded. _ _ 

On Monday, the/^fifteenth/ of September, 1774, the ^ 
Congress met at Philadelphia. Washington was 
present, with his friend Patrick Henry, and other 
Virginians. " It was a solemn and awful scene," says 
one who was present. "It is such an assembly as 
never before came together in any part of the world," 
wrote John Adams, Avho was one of the delegates from 
Massachusetts. "Here is a diversity of religious 
education, manners, interests, such as would seem im- 
possible to unite in one plan of conduct." 

Impossible as it seems, the union took place. " I 
AM NOT A Virginian, but an American," said 
Patrick Henry, and the same spirit pervaded the 
whole assembly. It was moved and seconded that 
the meetings should be opened every morning with 
prayer. This was at first objected to, on the ground 
that the delegates, being of so many different sects, 
might object to joining in the same form of worship. 
But the objection was speedily set aside by Mr. 
Samuel Adams. " He would willingly join in prayer 
with any gentleman of piety and virtue, whatever 
might be his cloth, provided he was a friend of his 
country," he said, and he moved that the Reverend 
Mr. Duche, a somewhat eminent Episcopal minister, 
of Philadelphia, might be invited to officiate as chap- 
lain. . The motion was carried. The next morning, 
Mr. Duche appeared and read a part of the morning 
service with great solemnity. The psalm for the day 
— the thirty-seventh — appealed to every one, especi- 



116 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

ally as a rumor had been received that Boston had 
been cannonaded by the British. Mr. John Adams 
writes the following description of the scene to his 
wife: 

" You must remember this was the morning of the 
horrible rumor of the cannonade of Boston. I never 
saw a greater effect upon the audience. It seemed as 
if Heaven had ordained that psalm to be read on that 
morning. After this, Mr. Duche unexpectedly struck 
out into an extemporary prayer, which filled the 
bosom of every man present. Episcopalian as he is. 
Doctor Cooper himself never prayed with such ardor, 
such earnestness and pathos, and in language so 
eloquent and sublime, for America, for the Congress, 
for the province of Massachusetts Bay, and especially 
for the town of Boston. It has had an excellent effect 
on everybody here." 

An anecdote has been preserved relating to Wash- 
ington's conduct at this time. A gentleman, who had 
heard much of him, asked Mr. Secretary Thompson to 
point him out. Mr. Thompson replied, "You can 
easily distinguish him when Congress goes to prayers. 
Mr. Washington is the gentleman who kneels down." 
This anecdote has been repeated as showing especial 
devotion in Washington. No doubt his feelings were 
deeply moved, the more that he was a dee|)ly and 
earnestly religious man, but doubtless, too, there were 
others as much so. The simple truth was that most 
of the gentlemen present were of Congregational and 
Presbyterian churches, and stood in prayer as they 
were accustomed to do, while Washington, being an 



LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON. 117 

Episcopalian, assumed the attitude usual in that com- 
munion. 

Congress remained in session fifty-one days. Wash- 
ington attended all the sittings, but as the meetings 
were held with closed doors, we do not know what 
part was taken by him in the discussions. The papers 
issued by this Congress have been greatly praised for 
the statesmanship they exhibited, especially the " Loyal 
Address to the King." Lord Chatham, in the House 
of Lords, spoke in the highest terms of their " decency, 
firmness and wisdom," and declared that he knew no 
people who could stand in preference to the delegates 
of the American Congress assembled at Philadelphia. 

On the breaking up of Congress, Washington re- 
turned home, to busy himself in military preparations 
for the struggle which he felt to be impending. He 
had joined in the " Loyal Address," but he put little 
faith in the power of words, however weighty and well 
chosen. He believed, with Patrick Henry, that " an 
appeal to the God of battles was all that was left." 
He wrote to his brother, who was engaged in raising 
and disciplining a company, " It is my full intention, 
if needful, to devote my life and fortune to the cause." 
He w^as frequently called upon for advice in military 
matters, and spent much time during the winter in 
riding from place to place, to examine and review the 
numerous independent companies which were formed 
in different places. General Charles Lee and Major 
Horatio Gates were both guests at Mount Vernon this 
winter. They were both Englishmen, and, to some 
extent, soldiers of fortune. Gates had fought with 



118 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

AVashington on the day of Braddock's defeat, and was 
a brave soldier, but a somewhat wrong-headed one. 
Lee had been in the Polish service, and had travelled 
all over Europe, and was looked upon as a great 
accession by the patriots. He was slovenly and even 
dirty in his person, and affected a certain eccentricity 
and rudeness of manners, which peculiarities, joined 
to the fact that he had always a legion of dogs at his 
heels, could not have made him . a very agreeable 
member of the household. 

Now came the news that the battle of Lexington 
had been fought, and that all New England was in 
arms. The people of Virginia and the Southern 
colonies were at once aroused, for the cause of one was 
the cause of all. Nothing was heard but the drum 
and fife and the echo of patriotic speeches and senti- 
ments of every kind. The colonial poets bestirred 
themselves, and produced, it must be confessed, some 
of the worst verses the world has ever seen. Com- 
panies were drilling and marching on every hand, 
and ladies worked night and day weaving cloth, knit- 
ting stockings, and making garments for the men. 
General Gage could not conceive how it was that the 
other colonies sympathized so strongly with the dis- 
turbances in Massachusetts, which he said were none 
of their business. But the colonies were distinctly of 
opinion that the business of one was the business of 
all. 

AVashington received the news from New England 
with regret indeed, but without surprise. He had 
long seen that a fight was inevitable. But he did not 



LIFE A T 310 UNT VERNON. 1 1 9 

flinch from the seutiments he had already expressed. 
He wrote to his old frieud George Fairfax, then in 
England : — 

" Unhappy it is to reflect that a brother's sword has 
been sheathed in a brother's breast, and that the once 
liappy and peacefnl plains of America are to be either 
drenched in blood or inherited by slaves. Sad alter- 
native ! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his 

CHOICE ?" 

Fuel was added to the patriotic fire by the news that 
Ticonderoga and Crown Point, forts on Lake Cham- 
plain, famous in the old French war, and well sup- 
plied with military stores, had been surprised and 
taken without a struggle by Ethan Allen and his 
Green Mountain boys, while Benedict Arnold attacked 
St. John's, on the Sorel river. Arnold took a king's 
sloop, well armed, and several other vessels, destroyed 
others, and hearing that troops Avere on their way 
from Montreal, departed with flying colors, carrying 
oflf his prizes. These exploits, performed by a few 
backwoodsmen, under a partisan leader, were not 
without important results, especially as they opened 
a way to the Canadian frontier. 

The second general Congress met at Philadelphia 
on the 10th of May, 1775. A union of the different 
colonies was formed, which was to have the power of 
making peace or war, of making treaties, and exer- 
cising the other powers usually belonging to govern- 
ments. This was a very important step, and Congress 
lost no time in using the power committed to its hands 
for the general good. It ordered the enlistment of 



120 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

troops, the provision of arms and other necessaries, 
the building of forts, and the issue of three millions 
of paper money. Washington was made chairman of 
all the committees relating to military affairs. 

The situation of the little army before Boston was 
taken into consideration. It was clearly necessary to 
appoint a commander-in-chief, and all eyes turned 
towards Washington. Three other candidates were 
talked of, among whom were General Lee, Mr. Han- 
cock, and General Artemas Ward, already in com- 
mand. "On the 15th of June," says Mr. Irving, "the 
army was regularly adopted by Congress, and received 
the name of the Continental army, while that under 
General Gage was called the Ministerial army." On 
the same day Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, nominated 
George Washington for commander-in-chief. The elec- 
tion was unanimous. The next day the appointment 
was formally announced to him by the president. 
Washington showed no false modesty about anything 
to which he was so clearly called. He rose in his seat 
and briefly returned thanks for the honor, but added : 

" Lest some unlucky event should happen unfavor- 
able to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by 
every one in the room that I this day declare, with 
the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to 
the command I have been honored with. As to the 
pay, I beg leave to assure the Congress that as no 
pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to 
assume this arduous employment at the expense of 
my domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to 
make a profit of it. I will keep an exact account of 



LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON. 121 

my expenses. These I doubt not they will discharge, 
and that is all I desire." 

On the 20th of June, Washington's commission was 
delivered to him by Congress. Four major-generals 
were appointed — Philip Schuyler, of New York ; Israel 
Putnam, of Connecticut; Artemas Ward, of Massa- 
chusetts, and General Charles Lee. Major Gates was 
made adjutant-general, at the express desire of Wash- 
ington. Mr. Adams objected strongly to the employ- 
ment of either Lee or Gates ; but, nevertheless, voted 
for them because Washington so earnestly recom- 
mended them. We shall see by-and-by how these two 
gentlemen requited the trust of their commander. 

Washington knew what a grief his appointment 
would be to his wife, and he wrote her most tenderly 
and kindly on the occasion : 

"You may believe me when I assure you, in the 
most solemn manner, that, so far from seeking this 
appointment, I have used every endeavor in my power 
to avoid it, not only from my unwillingness to part 
from you and the family, but from a consciousness of 
its being a trust too great for my capacity ; and I 
should enjoy more real happiness in one month with 
you at home than I have the most distinct prospect of 
finding abroad if my stay were to be seven times seven 
years. But as it has been a kind of destiny that has 
thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my 
undertaking it is designed for some good purpose. I 
shall rely confidently on that Providence which has 
hitherto preserved and been bountiful to me, not 
doubting but I shall return safe to you in the fall. 



122 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

I shall feel no pain from the toil or danger of the 
campaign ; my unhappiness will flow from the uneasi- 
ness you will feel from being left alone. I therefore 
beg you will summon your whole fortitude and pass 
the time as agreeably as possible. Nothing will give 
me so much satisfaction as to hear this, and to hear 
it from your own pen." 

To his brother, John Augustine, he writes : 

" I am now to bid adieu to you and to every kind 
of domestic ease for a while. I am embarked on a 
wide ocean, boundless in its prospect, and on which 
perhaps no safe harbor is to be found." 

These letters, and others written at the same time, 
show the spirit with which Washington entered on 
his work. On the 21st of June, the day after he 
received his appointment, he set out on his journey, 
in company with Generals Lee and Schuyler, and 
escorted by a brilliant train of gentlemen from Phila- 
delphia. Twenty miles from the city they were met 
by a courier bearing to Congress the news of the 
battle of Bunker's Hill, which had taken place on the 
17th of June. Washington eagerly questioned the 
messenger as to the battle, and particularly as to the 
behavior of the militia. When he learned with what 
bravery and steadiness they had behaved under fire, 
he exclaimed : " The liberties of the country are safe !" 

Everywhere on the road Washington met with the 
greatest attention. At Newark he was met by a com- 
mittee from New York, appointed to conduct him to 
the city. The New Yorkers were in a perplexity, 
which, though serious at the time, seems to us rather 



LIFE AT MOV NT VERNON. 123 

romical. Governor Tryon, the royal Governor, was 
in the harbor, and was expected to land that same 
evening. Washington was also expected, and there 
seemed some danger of an awkward clash in the re- 
ception of the two great personages. Finally the diffi- 
culty was solved in the following manner : A regiment 
of militia was turned out, and the colonel was in- 
structed to receive with military honors whichever 
gentleman should arrive first. Washington happened 
to be first on the ground, and received the military 
honors, while Governor Tryon, landing later, was 
greeted by the Mayor and Common Council, and thus 
the difficulty was happily got over for the present. 

Schuyler was left in command at New York, with 
orders to keep a wary lookout on all sides, especially 
on the Governor. Washington himself pushed on to 
Cambridge. He was everywhere met with distin- 
guished honors. On the 2d of July, 1775, he entered 
the camp at Cambridge, amid the acclamations of 
soldiers and citizens and the thunders of cannon, 
which gave notice to the enemy of his arrival. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE AEMY BEFORE BOSTON. 

THE battle of Bunker Hill had been fought about 
two weeks before Washington's arrival. For two 
or three weeks the city of Boston had been surrounded 
and pretty closely invested, too, by the provincial 
troops, much to the vexation of the British officers, 
who did not fancy being " hemmed in by a rustic rout 
with calico frocks and fowling-pieces." The English 
troops were impatient for action, so were the Ameri- 
cans. A council of war was held among the Ameri- 
can officers, and it was decided to seize upon Bunker 
Hill, a height in the rear of the village of Charleston, 
which commands the city. General Ward Avas doubt- 
ful of the wisdom of the measure, and he was supported 
by Dr. Warren. On the other side, Putnam and Pome- 
roy, both veterans of the French war, warmly advo- 
cated the measure, and so did Colonel Prescott, an- 
other old soldier who had seen service in the affair at 
Cape Breton and elsewhere. He was a man of great 
weight and influence in camp, stately and military in 
appearance, and was, moreover, the only man among 
the officers who possessed a complete military suit — 
uniform it could hardly be called, since there was noth- 
ing else like it. How much influence the " blue coat, 
(124) 



THE A RMY BEFORE B OS TON. 1 25 

single breasted, with facings, and lapped up at the 
skirts," may have had with the council, I cannot say, 
but it was decided to take possession of Bunker's Hill 
and Dorchester Heights. The project was hurried for- 
ward by secret intelligence that General Gage was in- 
tending to take possession of Dorchester Heights on the 
night of June 18th. Colonel Gridley and other engi- 
neers had previously examined the ground about 
Bunker's Hill, and it was determined that the decision 
of the council of war should be carried into effect. 

A little before sunset on Friday, the 16th of June, 
1775, the troops destined for the expedition were assem- 
bled on the common, in Cambridge, in front of Gene- 
ral Ward's quarters. These were chiefly drawn from 
the regiments of Prescott, Frye and Bridges, all Massa- 
chusetts regiments, with a fatigue party of two hun- 
dred from Putnam's Connecticut troops and forty-nine 
artillerymen — about a thousand in all. They were 
provided with blankets and food for twenty-four hours, 
and with such arms as could be mustered, including 
two field pieces, under the care of Colonel Gridley. 
Colonel Prescott commanded the expedition, under 
written orders to fortify Bunker's Hill and defend it 
until relieved. The men were ignorant of their desti- 
nation, but were all in the best of spirits. Prayers 
were offered by the venerable President of Harvard, 
Dr. Langdon, and the march was begun in silence, 
about nine in the evening. At Charleston Neck, a 
very narrow isthmus which connects Charleston with 
the main land, they were joined by Major Brooks and 
General Putnam, and here the men were enabled to 



126 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

guess at their destination by seeing the wagons laden 
with intrenching tools which were awaiting their 
arrival. 

It was a dangerous march, for the whole ground was 
zealously watched by the British. The guns of the 
vessels of war were so disposed as to play upon the 
peninsula of Charleston from various points, and the 
guns of one of the vessels swept the isthmus or neclc. 
Had they been discovered, the whole force might have 
been destroyed, but they passed unobserved and reached 
the ascent of Bunker's Hill in safety. Then arose a 
serious question. The orders which Prescott had re- 
ceived named Bunker's Hill as the point to be fortified, 
but Breed's Hill was nearer to Boston and less exposed 
to the fire from the ships. A good deal of valuable 
time was lost in discussion, and Colonel Gridley, the 
engineer, grew very impatient. At last Breed's Hill 
was decided on, and the men went to work with great 
spirit. 

Prescott, who was in command, was oppressed with 
his responsibility. The chances were a hundred to one 
against the work being carried on undiscovered. He 
had sent out a party to patrol the shore, and he twice 
went down himself to make sure of their vigilance. 
Nothing stirred or gave the alarm. It was a warm, 
still, starlight night, and he could distinctly hear the 
cry of the sentry in Boston and the calling of the 
watch on the ships of war. It was evident that Gates 
and his officers had no notion of what was going on. 

The nights in June are short at best, and valuable 
time had been Avasted iu indecision, but by the dawn 



THE ARMY BEFORE BOSTON. 127 

of day so mucn of the work was accomplished as 
placed the Americans under shelter — a thing much 
desired by Colonel Prescott, who feared the fire of 
artillery for his raw recruits. As soon as there was 
light enough to see, the sailors on the ships of war per- 
ceived what was going on, raised the alarm and opened 
fire on the newly-constructed works. They did no 
harm to the works, but a man named Asa Pollard, 
who ventured outside, was killed. He was buried on 
the spot where he fell. This first death caused a great 
sensation, and a few men quietly deserted ; but the 
troops soon got over their dread of the cannon balls. 
To encourage them, Colonel Prescott mounted the 
ramparts and walked about, inspecting the work and 
talking cheerfully to the men. He was then seen from 
Boston, where Gage had at last got his eyes open, and 
was studying with his glass the fortification, which had 
grown up since sunset like a pasture mushroom ! 

"Who is that?" asked Gage. 

"That is my brother-in-law, Colonel Prescott," an- 
swered Councillor Willard, who was at hand. 

"Will he fight?" asked Gage. 

" Yes, sir ; he is an old soldier, and will fight to the 
last drop of blood," Avas the quick reply, "but I can- 
not answer for his men." 

Gage at once decided that the works must be car- 
ried, and with his usual contempt for the enemy he 
had to fight, he decided to land at the foot of the hiil 
and push his way directly up to the breastwork, instead 
of landing on the Neck, under cover of the fire from 
the ships, and thus taking the enemy in the rear. 



128 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX, 

About noon the Americans beheld the troops coming 
across from Boston in twenty-eight barges, making a 
splendid show with their brilliant scarlet uniforms and 
bright bayonets. They landed at Moulton's Point, a 
little to the north of Breed's Hill. Here it was found 
that through some mistake all the cannon balls they 
had brought with them were too large for the guns, 
and while the blunder was being rectified, General 
Howe ordered refreshments to be served bountifully to 
his men. Meantime the Americans were also making 
use of the delay to strengthen their works and send for 
reinforcements, which arrived somewhat tardily. Old 
Stark brought in his New Hampshire men, fresh and 
ready for action. General Warren had come over, 
and Prescott offered him the command, but he de- 
clined it, and served in the ranks as a volunteer. 
He was grandfather to Mr. William H. Prescott, the 
famous American historian, whose books should be in 
every school library. Warren's example was followed 
by General Seth Pomeroy. It is said that the General 
borrowed a horse from General Warren to ride over to 
Breed's Hill, but on coming to the Neck and observing 
how the ground was swept by the guns from the Glas- 
gow, he was afraid to risk the safety of the horse ; so, 
leaving the borrowed animal with a sentry, he walked 
across with a musket on his shoulder and joined the 
ranks under Prescott's command. 

The British knew that they had before them none 
but raw militia, and they expected an easy victory. 
They advanced up the hill, having left their field pieces 
below. The Americans awaited them in silence. 



THE ARMY BEFORE BOSTON. 129 

"Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes, then 
aim at their waistbands ! " were Prescott's orders ; " and 
be sure to pick off the oflacers." They were obeyed to 
the letter. Two destructive volleys were poured into 
the ranks of the enemy, and as almost every Ameri- 
can was a sharpshooter, and took deliberate aim, the 
carnage was dreadful. General Howe, who had at- 
tempted to storm another part of the works, met with 
the same reception. There was a general pause on all 
sides. Putnam tried to bring up reinforcements, but 
without much success. The firing at the Neck was 
terrible, and the raw troops could not at one time be 
brought to face it. The troops on the hill were in fine 
spirits at the check they had given to "the regulars;" 
but some of the old soldiers looked gravely at their 
small stock of powder and ball and shook their heads. 
Ij they could obtain supplies all would be well, but it 
was a terrible ijl 

There was a consultation among the British oflicers, 
and it was determined to make another charge, and try 
to carry the works at the point of the bayonet. It was 
a fearful scene. The village of Charlestown had been 
set on fire by shells from the fleet, and was burning 
furiously. A tremendous cannonade was kept up by 
the ships and the battery on Copp's Hill, and the dis- 
charges of musketry, and the yeUs of the soldiers on 
both sides, added to the uproar. " Sure I am, that 
nothing ever has been or can be more dreadfully 
terrible than what was to be seen or heard at this time," 
wrote Burgoyne, — "the most incessant discharge of 
guns that ever was heard by mortal ears." 



130 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

In the midst of this tumult, the English made their 
last charge. This time they reserved their fire till they 
reached the works, which they assaulted on three sides 
at once. A fearful hand to hand fight now took place. 
The Americans had fired away all their ammunition, 
but they clubbed their muskets, and fought with them 
in desperation. At last, however, Prescott gave a re- 
luctant order to retire. 

The last man to leave the works was Warren, who 
was shot down in the moment of departure. The 
Americans retired slowly across the Neck to Cambridge, 
and the British remained in possession of the ground. 
It was an undoubted victory, but a terribly dear one. 
They had been twice repulsed by the men whom they 
had unsparingly ridiculed as rustics and clodhoppers, 
and they had lost, out of a detachment of two thousand 
troops, one thousand and fifty-four, of whom a great 
number were officers. The Americans had lost four 
hundred and fifty men all told. They had measured 
their strength with the best soldiery of Europe, and had 
held their own far better than would have been 
expected of undisciplined troops. Such was the battle 
of Bunker's Hill — the first real battle of the Revolu- 
tion. 

Washington arrived at the camp in Cambridge on 
the third of July, and immediately reviewed the army. 
He is said to have taken up his position under a great 
elm, which is still pointed out as Washington's elm. 
He was accompanied by General Lee and several offi- 
cers of distinction, but, as Mrs. Adams tells us, he was 
himself the centre of attraction to all eyes. He was 



THE ARMY BEFORE BOSTON. 131 

now in the very prime of life, being forty-three years 
old, very tall, well made and muscular, with a hand- 
some face, remarkable for its expression of composure 
and self-restraint. He was exceedingly dignified, and 
at times somewhat cold in manner, and it is said that 
nobody ever ventured to take a liberty with him ; but 
he was universally kind and polite to all alike. A 
very aged colored woman, who remembered him as a 
visitor at her master's house, told me that he was re- 
markable for his kindness to the servants, and for 
always remembering their names. " Other gentlemen 
would pass by without a word, but de President — he'd 
a been President then — he used always to say, ' How's 
you dis mornin', Katy ? ' same as if I'd been a lady. 
But you don't see such gentlemen nowadays. They 
don't teach young folks manners like they used !" was 
her conclusion, and I fear it is only too true. 

It is quite true that AVashington was never too much 
hurried or embarrassed with business to observe the 
forms of politeness and respect. There was in Boston 
at this time a colored girl named Phillis, who was 
somewhat remarkable for her literary attainments. 
She belonged to a Mr. Wheatley, who purchased her 
from a slave-ship when about eight years old. The 
ladies of the family taught her to read and write, and 
she soon showed a remarkable taste for study. Not 
only so, but she wrote very respectable verses, and a 
volume of her poems Avas published in London, and 
much admired. Phillis Wheatley, as she was always 
called, was an ardent patriot and admirer of Washing- 
ton, and during his stay in Cambridge she addressed 



132 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

to him a poem and a letter. Botli are unfortunately 
lost, but we find Washington in the midst of the great- 
est press of business, just before taking possession of 
Dorchester Heights, writing a most kind and polite 
note to the poor little black poetess, apologizing for his 
delay in noticing her " elegant verses," and signing 
himself " with great respect, your obedient humble ser- 
vant." 

Washington was received with enthusiasm both by 
the troops and the inhabitants of the neighboring 
towns, who crowded to Cambridge to have a look at 
the hero. As soon as possible, he took a general sur- 
vey of the camp and army. There were about sixteen 
thousand men and ofl[icers in the camp, almost all 
drawn from the four New England States of New 
Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode 
Island. General Artemas Ward, a man of great sense 
and bravery, had the chief command. As might have 
been expected, the discipline of the army was very im- 
perfect, and it was found difficult to reduce the men to 
that absolute obedience and subordination which is the 
very first duty of a soldier. There was a want of 
almost everything necessary to an army — of tents, of 
clothes, of ammunition, and, above all, of money. A 
great difficulty in Washington's way was the sectional 
jealousy which prevailed among the soldiers. They 
were unwilling to serve except under their own State 
officers, and the feeling was continually breaking out 
in quarrels between the dififerent regiments. Another 
trouble was the short terms for which the men were 
enlisted, and this continued to be a stumbling-block to 



THE ARMY BEFORE BOSTON. 133 

the end of the war. The raw recruits were no sooner 
made into soldiers than they were ready to go home. 
Absurd as it may seem, while the army was struggling 
for mere existence, when no more than three thousand 
troops could be raised for love or money, and at least 
half of that number were bare-footed, half-naked, or 
sick with the small-pox, there were plenty of people, in 
Congress and out, to talk of the dangers of a standing 
army, and hint, in plain terms, that Washington meant 
to make use of his ragged regiments to make himself 
king. 

Washington at once set himself to work to rectify 
disorders and introduce discipline as soon as possible. 
He issued a general order, in which he begged the men, 
as they were now all soldiers of the Continental Army, 
to lay aside all distinctions of colony or province, " so 
that one and the same spirit shall animate the whole, 
and the only contest shall be, Avho shall render, on this 
great and trying occasion, the most essential service to 
the great and common cause in which we are all en- 
gaged." The order goes on to recommend the enforce- 
ment of discipline and obedience, and concludes with 
these words : 

" The General does most earnestly require and ex- 
pect a due observance of those articles of war estab- 
lished for the government of the army which forbid 
cursing, profane sw^earing and drunkenness. And in 
like manner he requires and expects of all officers and 
soldiers not on actual duty a punctual attendance on 
divine service, to implore the blessing of Heaven on 
the means used for our safety and defence." 



134 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

" Orders conceived in the same spirit, and inculca- 
ting the same sentiments, were often repeated," says 
Mr. Sparks, " and it is an interesting fact that, through 
the channel of his daily orders, Washington did not 
strive more earnestly to secure the discipline than to 
strengthen the patriotism and improve the morals of 
his officers." 

One of Washington's most painful duties was that 
of approving the sentence which a court-martial had 
lately passed upon Captain Callender. This unhappy 
man had disgraced himself, and endangered others, by 
behaving with cowardice at the battle of Bunker Hill. 
There was no doubt of his guilt, and he was cashiered. 
Many, perhaps most, young men under similar cir- 
cumstances would have given up everything and gone 
to utter destruction. Not so Callender. He obtained 
leave to rejoin his corps as a volunteer, and from that 
time was distinguished for his desperate and reckless 
bravery. At the battle of Long Island, when the 
captain and lieutenant of his company were both 
killed, he assumed the command, and fought his pieces 
to the last moment. He was under the very bayonets 
of the enemy, when a British officer, who had seen and 
admired his courage, interfered and saved his life. 
Callender continued' in the army to the end of the 
war. He left it without a stain upon his honor, and 
Washington erased his sentence from the orderly-book 
with his own hand. Such a story carries its own 
moral. 

The American troops were distributed in a kind of 
irregular semicircle, about nine miles in extent, hem- 



THE ARMY BEFORE BOSTON. 135 

ming in the city of Boston. They had thrown up 
fortifications with great cleverness, considering their 
inexperience, and had made themselves shelters as 
best they might, some with huts of boards, others of 
mud and stone debris, or of boughs and withes woven 
together. The Khode Island troops alone had regular 
marques pitched in military style. They were under 
the command of General Greene, and were remarkable 
for their numbers and good discipline. Nathaniel 
Greene was the son of an anchorsmith, in Rhode 
Island, who was also an eminent preacher in the 
Society of Friends, but the young man took to fightiug 
as naturally as a duck to the water, and was one of 
the best and most reliable general officers in the army. 

Amongst the worst provided troops were those be- 
longing to the colony of Massachusetts. They were in 
want of almost everything which a soldier should 
have, and some of the Southern commanders were dis- 
posed to look down on them in consequence. But 
Washington understood the matter better. He apolo- 
gized for them on the ground of the oppression which 
Massachusetts had already suffered. "Their de- 
ficiency in numbers, discipline and stores," said he, 
" can only lead to the conclusion that their spirit has 
exceeded their strength." 

Meantime, the city of Boston was in anything but 
a comfortable condition. The principal commanders 
under Gage were the Hon. William Howe, General 
Henry Clinton and General Burgoyne. Howe was 
brother to that Lord Howe who died on the banks of 
Lake George in Wolfe's famous campaign. He had 



136 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

been greatly beloved by the Americans, who grieved 
to see his brother engaged against them. General 
Clinton was the son of that George Clinton who was 
governor of the province of New York for ten years. 
General Burgoyne was a young man hitherto more dis- 
tinguished as a man of fashion and an author, in a 
small, genteel way, than as a soldier. His literary 
works are certainly not remarkable for talent, and 
some anecdotes remaining of him give no very exalted 
notion of his principles or feelings. He w^as not 
destined to win any very brilliant laurels in America 
in any direction. 

Under these commanders were about eleven thou- 
sand veteran soldiers, thoroughly disciplined and pro- 
vided with everything necessary for an army, except 
forage and fresh provisions — two very important arti- 
cles, which they could not obtain at any price. There 
were in the city a great number of Loyalists, as they 
called themselves, or Tories, as their countrymen called 
them, who had hitherto been residents, or Avho had fled 
to the British camp for protection. There were also 
many patriotic Americans who had been either unable 
or unwilling to escape. The situation of these last 
w^as pitiable in the extreme, as they were treated with 
every species of ignominy and oppression. The enemy 
seemed to take pleasure in insulting them. Some- 
times their insults were returned in kind, as when the 
British turned the South Church into a riding-school 
and burned the North Church for fuel, in revenge for 
which the troops in Cambridge destroyed the Episco- 
pal church and melted the organ pipes into bullets. 



THE ARMY BEFORE BOSTOX. 137 

The last might, perhap.^, have been excused on the 
score of necessity, as lead was a very scarce article. 
General Burgoyne lived in Mrs. Quincey's fine house, 
and a lady who resided opposite saw the handsome 
mahogany tables used as butchers' blocks to chop raw 
meat upon, and the other furniture used accordingly. 
Nobody could buy a bit of fresh meat or fish till the 
army was supplied. There was a great deal of sick- 
ness, especially among the prisoners, and many of the 
wounded on both sides died for want of proper care 
and food. 

Washington took up his headquarters in the fine 
old house now belonging to Professor Longfellow, and 
there he lived during the Avhole campaign, being joined 
after a time by Mrs. Washington. He addressed him- 
self with his usual earnestness to the task before him, 
of soothing discontents, arranging the troops, so that 
they might the better support each other in case of 
attack, providing clothes and shelter for the men, and 
attending to all those perplexing and vexatious minu- 
tiae which, far more than fighting, make up the hard 
work of a commander. He received valuable assist- 
ance from General Lee and General Gates, both expe- 
rienced soldiers, and from General Putnam, who had 
great influence both with the younger officers and the 
men. The somewhat disorderly camp was soon re- 
duced to order ; new entrenchments thrown up and 
old ones strengthened. A number of rifle companies 
came in from Pennsylvania, A^irginia and Maryland, — 
picked marksmen, every one of whom could hark off 
a squirrel or hit a buck in the eye. One of these 



138 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

companies was commanded by Daniel Morgan, who 
had learned his first lesson in war on the day of 
Braddock's defeat. They were a valuable and wel- 
come addition to the little army. 

About this time Congress appointed a day of fasting 
and prayer for the success of the American cause. 
Lee, who, like many weak-minded people, thought it 
manly to make a display of unbelief, scoffed at the 
notion, declaring that Pro^^ence was always on the side 
of the strongest battalions. Washington took a different 
view of the matter. By his orders all but the most 
necessary labor was suspended on that day, and both 
officers and men were required to attend divine service, 
and the Commander-in-chief himself set the example. 

Washington's great object now was to drive the 
British out of Boston. Already they were reduced to 
great straits. Not a foraging party could sally out to 
any of the towns or islands in the bay for hay or cattle, 
but three or four whale-boats would come gliding out 
upon them from unsuspected nooks and corners like 
so many water-spiders, and it generally happened that 
those who came to shear went home shorn. It is 
pleasant to know that the English prisoners taken in 
these expeditions were usually treated with great hu- 
manity by the Americans. There was a great deal 
of sickness among the English troops, and many died, 
while all were becoming dispirited and discontented 
at being shut up in such close and uncomfortable 
quarters. Washington was desirous of bringing on a 
general action, and all things seemed to favor his 
plans, when the alarming discovery was made that 



THE ARMY BEFORE BOSTON. 139 

the whole amount of powder in the American camp 
amounted to only thirty-two barrels — enough to fur- 
nish nine cartridges to each man, and no more. 

This was a terrible blow. For the moment it seemed 
as if all Avas over. Should the enemy gain intelligence 
of their destitute condition, than which nothing was 
more probable, they would undoubtedly choose that 
time for an attack. But Washington never gave way 
for a day nor an hour. He sent in every direction 
to gather together all the ammunition to be found in 
the country, and in the meantime continued to show 
a bold face to the enemy. This state of things lasted 
for more than two weeks, when a small supply of 
powder from New Jersey relieved the present distress. 
Some days afterward, a long train of Avagons laden 
with powder, shot and shells, and adorned with green 
boughs and flowers, entered the American camp. This 
was the lading of a large brigantine, captured by Cap- 
tain Manley in the schooner Lee, which had been sent 
out by Washington to cruise along the coast. The 
little vessel rendered much efficient service, and might 
be said to be almost the beginning of the American 
navy. 

Washington had not only the cares of the siege on 
his hands, but much of his attention was occupied 
with other matters. The towns all along the coast 
were exposed to the attacks of the British vessels, and 
were absolutely defenceless. Falmouth (now Port- 
land), in Maine, was one of the chief suiferers, and 
was burned to the ground in the most wanton and 
cruel manner. The inhabitants of these towns were 



140 ^ WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

of course kept in the most dreadful state of suspense 
and alarm, and constantly sent requests to Washington 
for vessels and troops to defend them — requests which 
he was obliged to refuse, though it wrung his heart to 
do so. But the force before Boston was far too small 
already for the work it had to do, and it would have 
been madness to reduce it further. 

An occurrence which happened about the same time 
as the burning of Falmouth produced universal indig- 
nation and alarm. A woman was caught coming 
from Cambridge with a letter for Captain AVallace, 
a man who had distinguished himself as a marauder 
on the American coast. General Putnam, or " Old 
Put," as he was called, even by the ceremonious Wash- 
ington himself, pounced upon the messenger, and, to 
lose no time, took her up on horseback behind him 
and carried her at once to headquarters. Washington 
happened to be looking out of the window at the moment, 
and the spectacle of the stout old general apjDroachiug 
at a gallop, with a still fatter old woman trussed up 
behind him, and holding on for dear life, overcame the 
commander's habitual gravity, and he laughed heartily, 
for almost the only time during the campaign. He 
soon recovered his composure, however, and the poor 
woman was subjected to a severe and searching ex- 
amination. With much reluctance she at last ad- 
mitted that the author of the letter was Dr. Benjamin 
Church, the Surgeon-General — a man as fully trusted 
and as much respected as any man in the army. The 
letter was in cipher, but being interpreted, proved to 
be a minute description of the situation and condition 




Old Put" and his captive. p. 140 



THE ARMY BEFORE BOSTON. 141 

of the army. Church was called to account, ana en- 
deavored to defend himself, but succeeded very lamely ; 
in fact, no defence was possible. He was kept in very 
close imprisonment for a time and severely watched, 
but at last he was permitted to leave the country. 
He set sail for the West Indies, and is believed to 
have perished at sea. 

Besides all these troublesome affairs at home was the 
miscarriage of the first expedition to Canada. A force 
had been sent by way of Lake George and Lake 
Champlain, and another by the way of the Kennebec 
River under Benedict Arnold. Those who wish can 
read an interesting and particular account of the whole 
expedition in Mr. Irving's " Life of Washington." I 
can only say here that although there were some suc- 
cesses, such as the taking of Chamblee and Montreal, 
the affair in general was a disastrous failure. The 
different parts of the expedition did not come together. 
The commanders c[uarrelled about precedence, and the 
men grew dispirited and home-sick. The Canadians 
were not found ready to rise and join the invaders as 
had been expected. General Montgomery was killed 
before Quebec, as Wolf and Montcalm had been killed 
before him. Many of the men were killed and more 
taken prisoners, and at last the project was abandoned. 

Late in the fall, Mrs. Washington arrived in camp. 
Her situation at Mount Vernon had been a lonely and 
at times a dangerous one, as Lord Dunmore was 
threatening great things in Virginia, and in case he 
should put them into execution. Mount Vernon would 
probably be destroyed. Lund Washington, a distant 



142 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

relation of the General's, was his agent there, and 
seems to have been as faithful as he was trusted. We 
find Washington writing to him as follows : 

" Let the hospitality of the house with respect to the 
poor be kept up. Let no one go hungry away. If 
any of this kind of people should be in want of corn, 
supply their necessities, provided it does not encourage 
them to idleness, and I have no objection to your 
giving away my money to the amount of forty or' fifty 
pounds a year where you think it well bestowed. 
What I mean by having no objection is, that it is my 
desire it should be done. You are to consider that 
neither myself nor my wife are now in the way of these 
good ofiices." 

Mrs. Washington travelled with her own carriage 
and horses, and accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Custis. 
Her journey was quite a triumphal progress from the 
attentions she received. Her presence at headquarters 
relieved Washington of a good deal of embarrassment 
regarding the matter of entertaining company. The 
household soon fell into regular ways. The General 
always maintained prayers morning and evening. 
There was a great deal of dinner company and some 
ceremonious parties. Other people also gave parties, 
especially Adjutant-General Mifilin, at whose house 
Mr. Adams dined, in company with General and Mrs. 
Washington and a number of Indian chiefs, and was 
surprised to find the latter personages such fine gen- 
tlemen. Here also Mrs. Adams met General Lee and 
was introduced to his dog Spot, who seems to have been 
somethinon more civilized than himself. 



THE ARMY BEFORE BOSTON. 143 

But these were only episodes. The winter wore on 
under constant anxieties and vexations, but without 
any material action on either side. The great standing 
trouble was the matter of short enlistments. On the 
hrst of January, 1776, the army was composed of ten 
thousand men, at least half of whom were militia 
whose term of service had almost expired. Some 
Connecticut men had already gone home, but they 
met with such a cold, or more correctly speaking, with 
such a warm reception, especially from the women, 
that they were glad to return. Then there were the 
old sectional jealousies breaking out every now and 
then. Mr. Irving gives the following story from the 
memoir of an eye-witness : 

"A large party of Virginia riflemen who had re- 
cently arrived in camp, were strolling about Cam- 
bridge and viewing the collegiate buildings. Their 
half Indian equipments and fringed and ruffled hunt- 
ing garbs provoked the merriment of some troops from 
Marblehead, chiefly fishermen and sailors, who thought 
nothing equal to the round jacket and trousers. A 
bantering ensued between them. There was snow on 
the ground, and snow-balls began to fly where jokes 
were wanting. The parties waxed warm with the con- 
test. They closed and came to blows, both sides were 
reinforced, and in a little while at least a thousand 
were at fisticuffs, and there was a tumult in the camp 
worthy of the days of Homer. At this juncture 
Washington made his appearance, whether by accident 
or design I never knew. I saw none of his aids with 
him ; his black servant was just behind him mounted. 



144 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

He threw the bridle of his own horse into his servant's 
hands, sprang from his seat, rushed into the thickest 
of the melee, seized two tall, brawny riflemen by the 
throat, talking to and shaking them. His appearance 
and strong-handed rebuke put an instant end to the 
tumult. The combatants dispersed in all directions, 
and in three minutes none remained on the ground but 
the two he had collared. Here bloodshed, imprison- 
ments, trial by court-martial, revengeful feelings be- 
tween the different corps of the army, were happily 
prevented by the physical and mental energies of a 
single person, and the only damage resulting from the 
fierce encounter was a few torn hunting-shirts and 
round jackets." 

About the first of January Washington wrote to his 
friend and secretary, Mr. Reed : 

" For more than two months I have scarcely emerged 
from one difficulty before entering another. How it 
will end, God in his great goodness will direct. I am 
thankful for His protection to this time. If I shall be 
able to get through this and many other difficulties, I 
shall most sincerely believe that the finger of Provi- 
dence is in it, to blind the eyes of our enemies; for if 
we get through this month, it must be for want of their 
knowing the disadvantages we labor under." 

They were destined to " get through," and to prove 
the falsity of Lee's saying, that Providence was always 
on the side of the strongest battalions. The time went 
on slowly without any marked event on either side. 
General Putnam, always ready for a fight or a frolic, 
one night made a raid into Charlestown, burned a 



THE ARMY BEFORE BOSTON. 145 

guard-house, took several prisoners, and retreatca -with- 
out loss. At the very time a piece was being acted in 
officers' theatre, in which Washington was represented 
" as an awkward lout, equipped with a huge wig and 
a rusty sword, attended by a country booby as orderly, 
with an old firelook seven or eight feet long." The 
appearance of a sergeant to give the alarm was at first 
thought a part of the performance, but when General 
Howe gave the word, " Officers, to your alarm posts !" 
there was a grand confusion. Ladies screamed and 
fainted, people crowded out of the theatre without cere- 
mony, and there was an end of the entertainment. Mr. 
Burgoyne had the credit of writing the piece to which 
"Old Put" furnished such an unexpected conclusion. 

Neither this untoward event nor the increasing 
scarcity and sickness prevented the British officers 
from indulging in all the gayeties within their reach. 
The distress of both citizens and soldiers was becoming 
dreadful. Several houses were demolished and used 
by the soldiers for fuel, and others were broken open 
and plundered, despite the effi^rts of the General. 
Still the British officers played cards and made parties, 
and the General gave entertainments which the Tory 
ladies attended, and from which the Whig ladies 
stayed away. In the American camp, on the con- 
trary, all was seriousness and sobriety. In a general 
order, issued on the tAventy-sixth of February, Wash- 
ington forbade all playing at cards or other games of 
chance. " At this time of public distress," (so runs the 
order,) "men may find enough to do without abandon- 
ing themselves to vice and immorality." 
10 



146 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

A great undertaking was now in progress, nothing 
less than the taking possession of Dorchester heights. 
Washington was now well supplied with guns and am- 
munition, and he felt that the time was come for a de- 
cisive step. On Monday evening, the fourth of March, 
1776, General Thomas set out with his detachment. 
A covering party of eight hundred men came first, then 
the entrenching tools, then the working party with 
three hundred wagons, laden with all sorts of materials 
for the proposed works, among which were a great 
number of bundles of pressed hay. To divert the 
attention of the enemy, a tremendous cannonade was 
kept up from various points. It was replied to with 
spirit, and such was the noise and uproar that though 
it was a bright moonlight night, the detachment 
reached the heights wholly undiscovered. Here all 
set to work with a will. The ground was frozen hard, 
and the cold was very severe, but the men worked 
with spirit, and were animated by the presence of 
General Washington, w^ho could not remain away 
from a post of so much interest and danger. Every- 
body in the neighborhood was kept awake by the 
thunder of the guns and the bursting of the shells. It 
was a dreadful time for those who had friends in 
Boston. 

Meantime, the British had no notion of what was 
going on. The night before, an English officer wrote 
to his friends at home : — 

" For the last six weeks we have been better amused 
than could possibly be expected in our situation. We 
had a theatre, we had balls, and there is actually a 



THE ARMY BEFORE BOSTON. 147 

subscription on foot for a masquerade. England seems 
to have forgotten us, and we have endeavored to forget 
ourselves." 

The masquerade was not destined to take place. 
When the day dawned, the British officers were utterly 
astounded to see a strong fortification erected on Dor- 
chester heights, so as to command the city and the 
shipping in the harbor. Howe could not believe his 
own eyes. " The rebels have done more work in one 
night than my army would have done in a month," said 
he. He saw in a moment the advantage which the Amer- 
icans had gained, and was most bitterly annoyed and per- 
plexed. One of two things he saw must be done — either 
the enemy must be dislodged or Boston must be evacu- 
ated. The latter alternative was too humiliating to be 
thought of. He determined to make a night attack 
on the works at Dorchester. Had he done so, General 
Putnam stood ready to make a diversion by attacking 
the city from the other side. But a stronger power 
than that under "Old Put" was ready to withstand 
him. In the evening the English forces set out, led 
by Lord Percy, the same who had 

" Fought for King George at Lexington, 
A major of dragoons." 

The gathering place was to be Castle William, and 
a large number of men were already on board the 
transports, when a violent storm arose from the east. 
It was impossible for the boats to land, and the attack 
was put off till next day. But next day the storm 
was worse than ever, and the attack was again post- 
poned. Meantime, the Americans were busied in 



148 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

strengthening and perfecting their works, and by the 
time the storm was over General Howe deemed them 
too strong to be carried. The shells thrown into the 
town and harbor showed that the place was no longer 
tenable, and in a council of war it was determined to 
evacuate Boston. 

But even here was a great difficulty. The troops 
could not embark without being exposed to a terrible 
fire from the new fort. General Howe endeavored to 
obviate this difficulty by working on the fears of the 
citizens by terrifying hints. He might be obliged to 
cover his retreat by setting fire to the city. The 
"select men" were alarmed, and sent a paper to 
"Washington begging " that such a dreadful calamity 
should not be brought about by any means from 
without." 

The paper was not signed, nor was there any assu- 
rance that Howe would not carry his threat into execu- 
tion, at all events, so that "Washington could not pro- 
perly take any notice of the document. However, 
the Americans suspended their fire for the present, 
though they continued to strengthen their works. 
They also attempted, but unsuccessfully, to erect 
another fort on Nook's Hill. The cannonading began 
again, and the wretched people of Boston passed 
another night of dreadful suspense and alarm. 

Indeed, the whole city was in a terrible state of 
confusion. Not only were the British troops prepar- 
ing to embark, but most of the Tories who had sided 
with them, and who had good reason to dread the 
arrival of their countrymen, were preparing to be 



THE ARMY BEFORE BOSTON. 149 

gone also. The inhabitants, without distinction of 
party, were ordered to give up all linen and woollen 
goods, and everything else which could be of any 
comfort to the enemy. This order was made the pre- 
text for all sorts of robbery and outrage, which Howe 
vainly endeavored to repress by threatening to hang 
the first soldier caught in the act of plundering. 
Houses and stores were broken open, pictures and 
books defaced, and furniture destroyed in mere wanton 
mischief. The Tories contrived to get their own goods 
on board the transports, and to crowd out the king's 
stores. Guns were disabled and thrown into the 
harbor, and the whole of the hospital and surgeon's 
stores were left behind. The officers did their best to 
maintain order, but, by their own account, the whole 
affair was more like a disgraceful retreat than an 
orderly evacuation. Meantime the Americans looked 
on without firing a shot. By ten o'clock on the seven- 
teenth of March the British were embarked and under 
way, and General Putnam had raised the American 
flag and taken command of the city. The siege of 
Boston was at an end. The " troop of rustics, in 
calico frocks and fowling-pieces," had fairly outgene- 
raled and driven away Lord Howe and his army of 
veterans. The British fleet remained for some days 
in Nantasket roads, but, at last they set sail and dis- 
appeared from the coast. 

Such was the conclusion of the revolutionary cam- 
paign. Washington received a vote of thanks, and 
a gold medal was cast in commemoration of the evac- 
uation of Boston. The British Government had lost 



150 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

many men, much time, and a million or more of 
pounds in money, not to mention a good deal of repu- 
tation, by which expenditure they had succeeded in 
convincing the most loyal of the American patriots 
that a Declaration of Independence had become an 
absolute necessity. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Washington's arrival at new york — condition 

OF THE city — THE JOHNSONS. 

IT was the opinion of Washington that, after leaving 
Boston, Howe would steer directly for New York. 
He was, however, mistaken. General Howe went to 
Halifax, to wait for the fleet of his brother. Admiral 
Lord Howe, who had been appointed commander-in- 
chief of the naval forces on the North American station. 
Washington, however, hastened on to New York the 
detachments of Sullivan and Heath, and wrote to Con- 
necticut for three thousand men. He gave the com- 
mand of the whole to Putnam, who was to follow the 
plans begun by General Lee in fortifying the city and 
the passes of the Hudson. He delayed to come on 
himself till he should have sent forward his main 
army. 

Lee, who seems always to have been firmly per- 
suaded that he alone of all American generals was 
fitted for a responsible command, had expected that 
after his departure, there would be great confusion, 
but Putnam showed himself eminently the right man 
for his place. 

He put the city under military rule. The soldiers 
went to their barracks when the tattoo beat, and re- 

(151) 



152 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-STX. 

mained there till the reveille in the morning. The 
citizens obeyed the same rule, and none were allowed 
to 2oass the sentries without the countersign, which they 
could receive only from the brigade majors. All com- 
munication between the shore and the "ministerial 
fleet " was cut off, and the people were not allowed to 
furnish provisions to the ships. Any person taken in 
the act of intercourse, was to be held as an enemy and 
treated accordingly. The people of New York were 
of varied origin. The descendants of the old Dutch 
and Huguenot families were among those who were 
the firmest in the American cause. Others were of 
Scotch and English descent, and among these were 
many favorers of the crown. Between the two ex- 
tremes might be found every shade of opinion. The 
Tory party in the city was strong, and could be held in 
check only by vigorous measures. Putnam, however, 
while he governed strictly, showed neither arrogance 
nor insolence to the loyal party, and he protected the 
persons and property of those who remained neutral. 

Putnam has been described by a contemporary " as 
one fitter to head a band of sicklemen or clothiers than 
musketeers." This gentlemen, however, could see ap- 
j)arently no virtue in any man who did not wear fine 
clothes, or come up to the standard of what he was 
pleased to call " gentility." 

Though the gallant old gentleman did wear " a waist- 
coat without sleeves," he proved himself, as Irving 
says, " eminently a soldier for the occasion," acting, in 
his difficult command, with firmness and wisdom. 

A letter written at the time gives a graphic picture 



ARRIVAL AT KEJV YORK. 153 

of the state of the city. " Wheu you are informed 
that New York is deserted by its old inhabitants, and 
filled with soldiers from New England, Philadelphia 
and Jersey, you will naturally conclude that the envi- 
rons of it are not very safe from so undisciplined a 
multitude as our provincials are represented to be ; but 
I do believe there are very few instances of so great a 
number of men together with so little mischief done by 
them. They have all the simplicity of ploughmen in 
their manners, and seem quite strangers to the vices of 
older soldiers. They have been employed in erecting 
fortifications in every part of the town. Governor 
Tryon loses his credit with the people here prodigiously. 
He has lately issued a proclamation, desiring the de- 
luded people of this colony to return to their obedience, 
promising a speedy support to the friends of the Gov- 
ernment, declaring a door of mercy open to the peni- 
tent, and a rod for the disobedient. The friends of the 
Government were provoked at being so distinguished, 
and the friends of liberty hung him in efiigy, and 
printed a dying speech for him. A letter, too, was in- 
tercepted from him, hastening Lord Howe to New 
York, as the rebels were fortifying. These have en- 
tirely lost him the good will of the people. You can- 
not think how sorry I am the Governor has so lost 
himself — a man once so beloved ! General Washing- 
ton is expected hourly. General Putnam is here, with 
several of the young generals and some of their ladies. 
The variety of reports keeps one's mind always in 
agitation." 

Washington came by way of Providence, Norwich, 



154 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SLY. 

and New Loudon, and arrived at New York on the 
ISth of April. 

He found that the fortifications begun by Lee had 
been in many parts completed, and that others were in 
progress. It was supposed that the first attack of the 
British would be made on Long Island, and there 
Washington placed General Greene in command. The 
forces distributed about New York and on Long 
Island, Staten Island, and elsewhere, were little more 
than ten thousand. Leaving out the sick, and others 
unfit for duty, wdth those who were absent on furlough, 
there were not more than eight thousand available for 
active service. They had not been paid. They had 
not been half provided with arms, and no one seemed 
to know where arms w^ere to be procured. 

Washington was full of anxiety. He knew that he 
w'as surrounded by the friends and emissaries of Great 
Britain, and he dreaded treachery. The ships of war 
had fallen down into the outer bay, within the Hook. 
They were twenty miles from the city, but Tryon was 
on board, and, in spite of all precautions, he kej^t up a 
correspondence with the Tories in the city and in the 
country round about. 

Washington had more influence with the Committee 
of Safety than the arrogant and impatient Lee, and iu 
addition to the order issued by Putnam to the city, he 
procured the passage of a resolution forbidding, under 
severe penalties, all intercourse with the ships. 

In addition to all his other cares, the news from 
Canada continued to be discouraging, and both Con- 
gress and the northern generals were urging him to 



ARRIVAL AT NEW YORK. 155 

send reinforcements from the slender force about New 
York. Ten regiments and a company of artificers Avere 
sent to join Thomas under Thompson and Sullivan, 
and still Congress was inquiring whether more could 
not be spared. 

The reply shows the worry and perplexity of mind 
to which Washington was subjected, not knowing 
where the next blow would fall. 

"I could wish, indeed, that the army in Canada 
should be more powerfully reinforced. At the same 
time I am conscious that the trusting this important 
post, which is now become the grand magazine of 
America, to the handful of men remaining here, is run- 
ning too great a risk. The securing of this post and 
Hudson's river is to us also of so great importance, 
that I cannot at present advise the sending of any more 
troops from hence, especially when it is considered that 
from this place only the army in Canada must draw 
its supplies of ammunition, provisions, and most pro- 
bably of men." 

" The designs of the enemy," he says, " are too much 
behind the curtain for me to form any accurate opinion 
of their plan of operations for the summer's campaign, 
and we are left to wander in the field of conjecture." 

There had been • " vague rumors of Hessian and 
Hanoverian troops coming over ;" but it was not until 
a later date that Washington learned to a certainty 
that Great Britain had been literally buying up men 
to assist in ruining her colonies. 

Besides the great subsidy exacted by the German 
princes, who thus disposed of their' subjects, they were 



1 56 WA SnTNG TON A ND SE VENTY-SIX. 

to be paid seven pounds four shillings and four pence 
for every soldier, and as mucli more for every one 
killed.* 

At Washington's headquarters, he himself, his sec- 
retaries and aid-de-camps were kept at work from 
morning till night " hearing and answering letters and 
applications." 

"I give in to no kind of amusement," he writes, 
" and consequently those about me can have none." 

Mrs. Washington presided over the domestic arrange- 
ments with her usual simplicity and dignity. The 
wives of some of the general officers united in forming 
a little society among themselves, but there was almost 
no social intercourse. 

" We all live like nuns shut up in a nunnery," writes 
a lady of New York. "No society with the town, for 
there are none there to visit ; neither can we go in or 
out after a certain hour without the countersign." 

Washington sent General Gates to Philadelphia to 
acquaint Congress with the situation of affairs in 
Canada, and hardly had his messenger departed, before 
he himself was called for by the same body. 

* These contracts excited great indignation in England as 
well as in America. A satirical piece, believed to have been 
written by Franklin, appeared after the battles of Trenton and 
Princeton. It purported to come from the Count de Schaumburg 
to the commander of the Hessians, congratulating him on the 
number of men he had succeeded in getting killed. The piece 
is wrtiten with great wit and humor. It may be read on page 
395, vol. II., of Bigelow's recent life of Franklin. It is amusing 
to find this jen d'eaprit quoted as a genuine letter from the Prince 
of Hesse-Cassel in a valuable historical work. 



ARRIVAL AT NEW YORK. 157 

He left New York, in company with his wife, on 
the 21st of May, leaving Putnam in command of the 
city, with careful instructions. The Provincial Con- 
gress had determined to seize the principal Tories, 
especially upon Long Island, and Putnam was author- 
ized to afford aid if necessary. Stirling, Colonel Put- 
nam and Knox, if he could be spared, were to examine 
the forts in the Highlands, and report what was wanting 
to their state of defence. 

Lee was glad to hear of Washington's visit to Phila- 
delphia. 

"I am extremely glad, dear general," writes he, 
" that you are in Philadelphia, for their councils some- 
times lack a little of military electricity." 

Washington seems to have done his best to infuse 
the desired " electricity," and was in some degree suc- 
cessful. He writes to his brother, on the 31st of May, 
that he is firmly convinced that no justice is to be had 
from Great Britain, and that all their talk of commis- 
sions was only meant to deceive the Americans and 
throw them off their guard. "The first," he says, 
" has been too effectually accomplished, as many mem- 
bers of Congress, in short the representatives of whole 
provinces, are still feeding themselves upon the dainty 
food of reconciliation. ... It is obvious that it 
is a clog to their proceedings." He commends the wis- 
dom of the Virginia convention in removing the dis- 
affected from Princess Anne and Norfolk counties, and 
for turning their attention to the manufacture of salt, 
saltpetre and powder. 

Washington openly expressed his conviction that no 



158 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

agreement could be effected with Great Britain. The 
ministerial party had declared in Parliament that " the 
most coercive measures would be persevered in until 
there was complete submission." The purchase of 
the German troops showed that nothing short of war 
was to be expected, and it was hopeless to try to carry 
on a struggle with such a power as England with the 
present scanty forces and the wretched system of short 
enlistments. 

Congress passed a resolution that men should be 
enlisted for three years, with a bounty of ten dollars 
for each recruit ; that until the 1st of December the 
army should be augmented with thirteen thousand 
eight hundred militia ; that fire-rafts should be built 
to keep the hostile ships from coming into the Bay or 
the Narrows ; and that a " flying-camp " of ten thousand 
militia, from Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania, 
should be placed in New Jersey for the protection of 
the middle colonies. 

Washington was also given power to call on the 
neighboring colonies for temporary aid with the militia. 
The most important measure, however, was the crea- 
tion of a permanent " Board of War and Ordnance," 
which was to take charge of military affairs. Hitherto 
matters relating to the conduct of the war had been 
left to the committees casually appointed, under which 
system there had been great confusion and neglect. 

Mrs. Washington, while in Philadelphia, took the 
opportunity of being inoculated for the small-pox, to 
the great relief of her husband, who had always been 
afraid of her taking the disease in the natural way. 



ARRIVAL AT NEW YORK. 159 

She passed through the illness favorabl^^ and was 
not at all disfigured. \ 

Washington returned to New York in the first week 
in June, while a new cloud of war was rising in the 
West. 

The Indians of the Six Nations were said to be 
holding councils with the Johnsons, noted Tories, who 
lived on the Mohawk, and the fear was that they 
would lay waste the whole Mohawk Valley and the 
country about Albany. 

The Johnson family were destined to play a promi- 
nent part in the Revolution. The founder of the 
family in America was Colonel William Johnson, an 
Irishman, who came to this country in 1734 to manage 
the estates of his uncle, Commodore Sir Peter Warren, 
in the INIohawk Valley. He was engaged in several 
actions during the French and Indian wars, and al- 
ways with credit to himself, and his services were 
rewarded with the title of baronet and a present of 
five thousand pounds from the House of Commons. 

Sir William appears to have used his influence with 
the Indians mostly for good. He was his Majesty's 
general agent for Indian affairs, and had obtained his 
office by the influence of the Schuylers. In the dis- 
putes between England and the colonies, though he 
had remained faithful to the king, he had watched 
with sorrow and anxiety the series of acts by which 
the once devoted provinces had been driven to arms. 

While thus distressed and perplexed, he received 
orders to enlist the savages in the cause of the king. 
It is conjectured that the distress and perplexity into 



160 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

which he was thrown by these orders brought on the 
apoplectic stroke of which he died, on the 11th of 
July, 1774. 

His son, Sir John Johnson, and his son-in-law, Guy 
Johnson, and Colonel Claus, felt none of the scruples 
of Sir William. The Johnsons lived in a sort of feu- 
dal state, surrounded by their retainers — many of them 
Scotch Highlanders, of the Roman Catholic persuasion; 
others half-breeds and vagabond Indians, and violent 
and lawless persons like Brant and the Butlers. 

His influence with the Indians had made him a dan- 
gerous enemy. Great numbers of the Indians took up 
arms. The Oneida nation alone remained faithful — 
kept so, in a great measure, by the exertions of Rev. 
Mr. Kirkland, a missionary, and by the influence of 
another white man, Mr. James Dean, who had been 
brought up among the Indians, and w^hom they had 
sent to school and to college at their own expense, and 
who always continued their faithful friend and protec- 
tor.* 

•:•:- While the Indians were yet undecided whether to take up 
arms with Johnson or remain neutral, Mr. Dean and some of the 
Oneida chiefs went on an embassy to some of the Canada Indians, 
with whom they were allied, hoping to prevent their joining with 
the British. Mr. Dean was dark as an Indian, and being painted 
and dressed in Indian fashion, and speaking the Indian tongue 
perfectly, could not be known for a white man. 

The Oneida deputation were received with great civility by their 
Canadian friends, who, of course, thouglit it essential to hospital- 
ity to make their guests drank, and, though the Oneidas had taken 
a serious resolve against the temptation of the fire-water, they all 
yielded to its fascination, and were soon too fiar gone for diplomacy. 
The Canadian Indians used every endeavor to change the faith 



ARRIVAL AT NEW YORK. 161 

All that was asked of any of the Indians in the be- 
ginning was neutrality, and this course was advocated 
by two or three of their great chiefs, Red Jacket, the 
great orator, among others. But the influence of the 
Johnsons and of Brant was too strong. Schuyler had 
demanded the surrender from Johnson of all arms, am- 
munition and warlike stores, and enforced his demand 
by the argument of a force of three thousand men, 
including the militia of the country, Avho, standing in 
great terror of the Johnsons, turned out with readiness. 
Sir John surrendered his arms and gave his parole of 
honor not to act against the American cause. 

Schuyler, however, had no sooner withdrawn, than 
the baronet broke his parole, and his adherents began 
to be as bold as ever in molesting those who sided with 
the colonies. Congress directed Schuyler to make 
Johnson a prisoner, and in May, Colonel Dayton was 

of the Oneidas to the colonies, but drunk though they were, they 
manfully adhered to their friends. 

At night, Mr. Dean was invited to share the mat with the Cana- 
dian chief, in his wigwam, and when^they were alone, the Cana- 
dian used every argument he could think of to induce the sup- 
posed Oneida leader to bring over his people to King George. 

" All the trouble with the Oneidas," said the Canadian chief, 
" is the fault of that Jimmy Dean. If I had that white man, I 
would take care that he should never stand in King George's way 
again ;" and then, sitting on the mat, the chief drew out his knife 
and tomahawk, and proceeded dramatically to illustrate the way 
in which Jimmy Dean was to be treated when caught. Mr. Dean, 
it may be supposed, found the lecture too interesting to be quite 
comfoi-table. He knew that his friends were all either drinking 
or drunk in various wigwams, and any of them might betray him 
at any moment. However, none of them did, and Mr. Dean re- 
turned to his Oneida home in safety. 
11 



162 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

sent to Johnstown for that purpose. Sir John, how- 
ever, had his timely warning. 

He placed his most valuable effects in an iron chest, 
which he buried in his garden, and then collecting a 
number of his Scottish tenants and other Tories, he fled 
through the woods. After a toilsome march of nine- 
teen days, they arrived at Montreal.* 

Sir John immediately received the commission of a 
colonel in the British service. He raised two battal- 
ions of loyalists, afterwards known as the Johnson 
Greens, and was one of the most implacable enemies 
of the American cause.f 

Washington was on the alert to provide against the 
danger of Indian invasion. He wrote to General 
Schuyler to send Colonel Dayton to take post at old 

"••■ Sir John entrusted a negro, whom he owned, with the burial 
of the iron chest. When Johnson Hall was sold, Colonel Volkert 
Veeder bought the slave. The faithful fellow, though much 
pressed and closely watched, never told where the treasure was 
hidden. Sir John, in the year 1780, revisited the hall, recovered 
his slave, and, by his aid, found the treasure undiminished. 
Whether he rewarded the loyal negro, I have not been able to 
learn. 

t Lady Johnson was conveyed to Albany. She was treated with 
all courtesy and kindness, but was for some time detained as a 
sort of hostage for her husband. At the sale of Johnson Hall, Mr. 
John Gaylor, afterward Lieutenant-Governor of New York, bought 
the family Bible for four guineas. Seeing that it contained the 
family record, he politely wrote to Sir John, offering to restore it. 
A messenger was sent for the book, who told Mr. Gaylor that he 
had come for Sir John's Bible, and that these were the four 
guineas which it cost. The man was asked whether Sir John had 
sent any message, and what it was. " Pay the money and take 
the book," was the reply. 



ARRIVAL AT NEW YORK. 163 

Fort Stanwix (a name afterward foolishly changed to 
Borne), and requested him to hold a conference with 
the Six Nations. 

"AVe expect a bloody summer," he wrote to his 
brother Augustine, " and I regret to say we are not, in 
men or arms, prepared for it. However, it is to be 
hoped that, if our cause is just, as I most religiously 
believe, the same Providence which has in many cases 
appeared for us, will still go on to afford its aid." 

Washington not only believed in God, but he believed 
that God was with him. " The Lord is on my side ; I 
will not fear what man may do unto me," was his 
motto. 

A very important point was now to secure the Hud- 
son — the grand means of communication between the 
northern and southern armies, and with the interior 
of New York. Various forts were built and repaired, 
for the purpose of commanding the river. The prin- 
cipal ones were Fort Montgomery, just north of the 
Dunderberg and opposite to Anthony's Nose; Fort 
Constitution, about six miles up the river, near West 
Point; Fort Independence, or, as it was afterwards 
called. Fort Lee, which defended King's Bridge, and 
Fort Washington. Everything was put in the best 
order possible, as it was known that the British would 
use every effort to get possession of New York. 

At this juncture a great alarm was raised. There 
was, it was said, a conspiracy between the Tories on 
Long Island and those in the city ; they were to take 
up arms, and co-operate with the British troops as 
soon as the fleet should arrive. The wildest reports 



164 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

flew over the country. Some of the Tories were to 
destroy King's Bridge to prevent the retreat of the 
Americans ; the guns were to be spiked, the magazines 
were to be blown up, all the generals were to be mur- 
dered, Washington was to be given up to the British, 
or killed as soon as taken. 

That there was a conspiracy there is little doubt, 
and its chief supporters seem to have been among the 
liquor-sellers, several of whom were named as having 
been active in corruption and treachery. 

A committee from the New York Congress went 
vigorously to work to investigate the matter, under 
their chairman, John Jay. The plot was, as might 
have been expected, traced up to Governor Tryon, 
who, from his position on the ships, acted through 
agents on the shore. The principal in the city was 
David Matthews, the Mayor. He was accused of 
having spent money in corrupting the soldiers, enlist- 
ing men and purchasing arms. The committee author- 
ized and ordered Washington to arrest Matthews. 
His house was at Flat Creek, not far from Greene's 
encampment. Washington sent the order to arrest 
IMatthews to Greene, by whom it was promptly exe- 
cuted. No papers, however, were found in Matthews' 
house, though careful search was made. 

There were several other arrests, and among them 
some of Washington's own body-guard. 

The Tories were greatly alarmed, and many of those 
on Long Island ran away and hid themselves in the 
woods and marshes. Washington ordered that those 
arrested who were of the army should be tried by 



ARRIVAL AT NEW YORK. 165 

court-martial and the others turned over to the civil 
power. 

It appeared before the committee that Governor 
Tryon had offered five guineas and a large bounty in 
land to every man who would enter the king's service. 
The men thus enlisted were to join the king's troops 
when they came. 

Much of the evidence given was of a very doubtful 
kind. Washington did not think that the consj^irators 
had arranged any regular plan, and was in hopes that 
"the matter, by a timely discovery, would be sup- 
pressed." Matthews admitted that he had known of 
the efforts to corrupt Washington's guard, though he 
declared that he had disapproved of them. He had 
also paid money to another of the accused, Gilbert 
Forbes, a gunsmith, for guns made and to be made. 
He had done this at the request of Governor Tryon, 
and, as he said, with great reluctance. He had 
warned Forbes that if discovered he would be hanged. 

The mayor and several others'were detained in prison 
for trial. 

Thomas Hickey, a soldier of Washington's guard, 
was tried before a court-martial. He was an Irish- 
man, a deserter from the British army. The court 
found him guilty of mutiny, sedition and traitorous 
correspondence with the enemy, and he was sentenced 
to death. 

Washington approved the sentence, and it was car- 
ried into effect in the most solemn and impressive 
manner. He was executed in a field near Bowery 
lane in the presence of twenty thousand people, includ- 



166 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

ing all the soldiers off duty. Washington, in his 
orderly book, expresses his hope that the fate of 
Hickey would be a warning to all "to avoid the crime 
for which he suffer ed." 

Hardly had this alarm subsided, when it was fol- 
lowed by another far more serious. On the 29th of 
June the lookout on Staten Island announced that not 
less than forty sail were in sight. These were the 
ships which had gone from Boston to Halifax, together 
with six transports filled with Highlanders. 

They made no attempt to ascend the Hudson, as 
expected, but came to anchor off Staten Island, where 
they landed their men and pitched their tents all over 
the hills. Later arrivals swelled the number of the 
fleet to one hundred and thirty men-of-war and trans- 
ports. While the hostile fleet was day by day increas- 
ing, and more and more tents were pitched on Staten 
Island, it was discovered that the ramifications of the 
Tory plot had extended up the Hudson, and though 
nothing came of it, the whole region was thrown into 
a state of great anxiety and agitation. On the Grey- 
hound came General Howe, Washington's old adver- 
sary at Boston. He immediately had a conference 
with Governor Tryon, and seems to have expected a 
general rising of the Tories, which party he seems to 
have thought comprised almost all the people of the 
province of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. 
He was disappointed in his hopes, however. The 
Tories were nowhere in the majority, and such was the 
character of by far the greater part that they were 
better at plots than at fighting. 



ARRIVAL AT NFW YORK. 167 

Those in and about New York knew that Washing- 
ton had hanged Thomas Hickey, and possibly they 
thought that he might find time to hang several more 
of them before he was driven away, in w^hich case the 
arrival of General Howe would be of no particular 
advantage to them. 

Washington was anxious and full of care. He saw 
the full gravity of the situation, and seems from the 
first to have had some doubt of being able to hold 
New York, but not the less on that account did he 
take every precaution and strain every nerve to be 
ready to meet the enemy. In his general order, dated 
July 2d, he says : 

"The fate of unborn millions will now depend, 
under God, upon the courage and conduct of this 
army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us no 
choice but a brave resistance or the most abject sub- 
mission. This is all we have to expect. We have 
therefore to resolve to conquer or die. . . . Let 
us rely upon the goodness of the cause, and the aid 
of the Supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to 
animate and encourage us to great and noble actions." 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE DECLARATION. 

IN the midst of this trouble and care, Washington 
received stirring news from Philadelj^hia. 

Congress had at last resolved to take a step which, 
to an indifferent spectator, or to one who believed that 
Providence was always on the side of the strongest 
battalions, must have seemed absolute madness. At 
first neither the colonies nor their representatives had 
thought a separation from the mother country possible 
or desirable. Even so late as October, 1774, Wash- 
ington himself, writing to his early friend, Captain 
M'Kenzie, had said: "Give me leave to add, Ptud I 
think I can announce it as a fact, that it is not the 
wish or interest of that government (Massachusetts), 
or any other on this continent, separately or collec- 
tively, to set up for independence." But it soon be- 
came clear that no middle course was open to the 
colonies ; they must either be an independent nation or 
submit to be treated not only as children, but as slaves. 

It was in no sudden gust of passion that the Declara- 
tion of Independence was made, nor was it dictated by 
unpractical dreamers, hoping to bring about by some 
machinery of human device an impossible Utopia. 

To the last possible hour Congress hesitated to 
(168) 



THE DECLARATION. 169 

break the only link which bound them to England. 
North Carolina was the first to take the decisive step. 
So early as May, 1775, the Provincial Congress, assem- 
bling at Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, in spite of 
their Governor's prohibition, in effect declared them- 
selves the representatives of a free state, and on the 
22d of April, 1776, the convention of North Carolina 
instructed her delegates in Congress "to concur with 
those of the other colonies in declaring independence." 

The people of Boston ordered their members to in- 
form Congress that in case the declaration was made, 
"the inhabitants of that colony (Massachusetts), wiili 
their lives and the remnant of their' fortunes, would 
most cheerfully support them in that measure." 

Virginia, on the 17th of May, bade her delegates 
propose a declaration of independence. Rhode Island 
speedily folloAved the example. The New York Legis- 
lature w^ould give no instruction without the express 
sanction of the people, and called on them to signify 
their sentiments at the next election. The assembly 
of Connecticut, June 14th, issued instructions to its 
members to vote for independence, and, on the 15th, 
New Hampshire passed similar resolutions. New Jer- 
sey left her representatives to their own judgment. 
Pennsylvania at first forbade her members to concur. 
In June, these restrictions were removed; but the 
Pennsylvanians were not instructed nor ofiicially al- 
lowed to sanction the declaration. Maryland posi- 
tively forbade the act, and Delaware, South Carolina 
and Georgia took no action, and left their members 
to vote as they pleased. 



170 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

There was, as well there might be, doubt and dread. 
Every man who should publicly advocate the measure 
or put his hand to the deed knew that he ran the risk 
not only of political and financial ruin, but of a cruel 
and shameful death. Treason was still punished in 
England by hanging, drawing and quartering, and it 
was but little more than thirty years since the bloody 
executions after the Stuart rebellion had shown the 
world how little mercy was to be expected for those 
who took up arms against the crown. 

The colonies were surrounded on all sides by savages, 
whom England was both able and willing to let loose 
upon the settlements. England had a powerful army 
and navy, under able and experienced commanders ; 
she had ample stores ; she had a host of mercenaries, 
trained to make war in a fashion hardly less pitiless 
than that of the Iroquois ; and last, and worst, in every 
town and village, and on every frontier, she had those 
who sympathized with her cause and were ready to 
betray their own countrymen, some for love of King 
George, but more for King George's pay and plunder. 

To resist a foe thus armed and equipped. Congress 
had a fast-lessening treasury, an army small and con- 
stantly fluctuating in numbers, ill paid, ill equipped 
and undisciplined, and, with all its patriotism, already 
greatly hampered by sectional differences and jealousy. 
Their resources were few ; their difficulties were great ; 
the danger of utter ruin was near and threatening, for 
every day Howe's fleet and army were drawing closer 
and closer to New York, and to the worn and harassed 
forces of Washington. 



THE DECLARATION. 171 

Yet the public conviction that the declaration must 
come grew stronger every day. On the 31st of January, 
Washington wrote to Keed : 

"A few more such flaming arguments as were ex- 
hibited at Falmouth and Norfolk (two towns burned 
by the British), added to the unanswerable reasoning 
contained in the pamphlet " Common Sense," will not 
leave members at a loss to decide upon the propriety 
of separation.'^ 

The event proved that AVashington was in the right. 

After twenty days of doubt and sorrowful hesitation, 
Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, at last rose in his 
place, and in a voice steady, clear, and distinctly audi- 
ble, read this resolution : " These United Colonies are, 
and of right ought to be, free and independent States, 
and all political connection between us and the state 
of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." 

Instantly John Adams seconded the resolution, and 
the deed was recorded in the journal, the name of the 
proposer and seconder being omitted, in order that the 
heavy responsibility might fall on all alike. 

Three days afterward, a committee was appointed 
to prepare a declaration " in case Congress agree 

* Several pamjihlets under this title were written by Thomas 
Paine, and had great influence. The first number, published in 
December, 1776, was read to every corporal's guard. From this 
is the following extract : 

" My secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Al- 
mighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave 
them unsupported ly to perish, who have so earnestly and re- 
peatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war by every decent 
method which wisdom could invent." 



172 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

thereto," the further consideration of the measure 
being postponed till the 1st of July. The committee 
consisted of Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia; John 
Adams, of Massachusetts; Benjamin Franklin, of 
Pennsylvania ; Roger Sherman, of Connecticut ; and 
Robert R. Livingston, of New York. 

The original draft of the Declaration was written by 
Jefferson. Congress made some amendments and 
omitted certain phrases which were thought, too vio- 
lent. A resolution charging the king with forcing the 
slave trade upon the colonies was stricken out, as not 
in accordance wuth facts, so carefully did Congress 
guard against unjust accusation. Their cause was strong 
enough and their grievances needed no exaggeration. 

On the 2d of July, Lee's first resolution was adopted. 
Maryland recalled her negative, and ordered her dele- 
gates to agree. 

On the 4th of July, Congress, by a unanimous vote, 
accepted the Declaration of Independence, and were 
thenceforth the United States. 

It was two o'clock in the afternoon when the final 
vote was announced. All through the debate the old 
bellman had waited in the steeple of Independence 
Hall. He had placed a little boy at the door below 
to give him notice if the vote should be in the affirma- 
tive. The time went on, an anxious crowd gathered 
in the street, and still the bell was silent. 

At last the vote was announced. The boy waiting 
below shouted, " Ring, ring," and the next instant the 
bell, known ever since as the " Liberty Bell," told that 
a nation was born. 



THE DECLARATION. 173 

Around that bell may still be read its old motto, 
" Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the 
inhabitants thereof." 

Everywhere the Declaration was received with enthu- 
siasm, but it Avas nowhere more gladly welcomed than 
in Washington's camp. It was not till the 9th of July 
that it reached the Commander-in-chief, and at six 
o'clock that evening it was read at the head of every 
brigade. The troops encamped on the common where 
the City Hall now stands were formed into a hollow 
square, w^ithin which Washington sat on horseback, 
while the Declaration was read aloud by one of his 
aids. AYhen it was concluded, three hearty cheers were 
given. 

In the centre of the Bowling Green stood an eques- 
trian statue of George the Third, made of gilded lead. 
The night the Declaration was read, this statue was 
pulled down, broken in pieces, and sent to be run into 
bullets.* Some of the soldiers seem to have taken 
part in this proceeding, as Washington in his general 
order censures the deed as "riotous,' and indicating 
w^ant of discipline, and the soldiers were forbidden to 
indulge in similar acts.f 

On the same day, the general order announced that 
Congress had allowed a chaplain to each regiment, and 

* Ballets were made of other materials as uncommon as royal 
statues. We know of one handsome old pewter service, a much 
prized and greatly bescoured heir loom, which was run into balls. 
These pewter bullets were not uncommon among the New Eng- 
land troops, and were said to be more dangerous than lead. 

t Glover's well-known sailor soldiers were active in the de- 
struction of the statue. 



174 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

soldiers and officers were ordered to pay them proper 
respect." 

" The blessing and protection of Heaven," says the 
General, " are at all times necessary, but especially so 
in times of public distress and danger." The General 
"hopes and trusts that every officer and man will en- 
deavor so to live and act as becomes a Christian sol- 
dier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of his 
country." 



CHAPTER X. 

OPEKATIONS IN CANADA — LEE's VICTORIES IN THE 
SOUTH. 

NEVER has this nation seen darker days than tnose 
immediately succeeding its birth. The expedi- 
tion to Canada, from which so much had been ex- 
pected, had resulted in the most disastrous manner, 
and disappointed the hopes which had been excited by 
Montgomery's capture of Fort Chamblee and Fort St. 
John, on the Sorel. Ethan Allen, who had been sent 
to recruit among the Canadians, had made an ill- 
judged attack upon Montreal. He was to have been 
reinforced by troops under Major Brown ; but Brown 
failed to join forces, and at the end of an hour and 
three-quarters hard fighting, Allen was left with only 
twenty-eight men to oppose two hundred and forty, his 
Canadian allies having all deserted him. Allen and 
his men surrendered on the promise of honorable 
terms. 

General Prescott, however, learning that Allen was 
the man who had taken Ticonderoga, was mean enough 
to treat him and his men with great cruelty, by way of 
revenge for the loss of the fort. 

On the 19th of November, Montgomery appeared 
before Montreal. 

(175) 



176 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY^SIX. 

General Carleton, knowing that his small force could 
not defend the town against the Americans, embarked 
his men and the more important stores on board ten 

eleven small vessels, and sailed away in the night. 

The next day, Montgomery entered the town and 
took quiet possession. He gained the good will of the 
inhabitants, treating them with kindness and courtesy 
and protecting them in their rights. 

He met with an additional success in the capture of 
Carleton's flotilla, with the officers' stores and General 
Prescott on board. Carleton, however, had escaped to 
Quebec. 

Notwithstanding his success, Montgomery wrote to 
Congress that " till Quebec was taken, Canada was not 
conquered." He learned by intercepted letters that 
Arnold, so long and anxiously expected, had arrived 
in the neighborhood of Quebec. 

Montgomery now prepared to join Arnold, but he 
found himself hindered not only by the severity of the 
weather, but by discontent among his troops. 

The system of short enlistments, against which 
Washington so often protested, brought forth the same 
fruits in Canada as on this side the border. Many of 
the men went home, and others refused to accompany 
their General to Quebec. 

Montgomery, gallant soldier as he was, was not alto- 
gether a popular commander. He had learned his 
profession as an officer in the British army, and, to 
judge from his letters, did not understand or sympa- 
thize with the feelings of men who Avere citizens as 
well as soldiers. He confesses, in a letter to Schuyler, 



OPERATIONS m CANADA. Ill 

that he had not " the patience and temper requisite for 
such a command." 

Schuyler had his own share of vexations and annoy- 
ances, and at one time both he and Montgomery were 
on the point of resigning their commissions. Congress, 
however, protested against Schuyler's retirement, and 
Washington added his remonstrances. 

" I am sorry," he said, " that you and General Mont- 
gomery incline to quit the service. Let me ask you, 
sir, when is the time for brave men to exert tlicmselves 
in the cause of liberty and their country, if this is not ? 
Should any difficulties that they may have to encoun- 
ter at this important crisis deter them ? God knows 
that there is not a difficulty that you both very justly 
complain of that I have not in an eminent degree 
experienced — that I am not every day experiencing ; 
but we must bear up against them, and make the best of 
mankind as they are, since we cannot have them as we 
ivish. Let me, therefore, conjure you and JNIr. Mont- 
gomery to lay aside such thoughts, as thoughts inju- 
rious to yourselves and extremely so for your country, 
which calls aloud for gentlemen of your ability." 

This letter prevailed, and Schuyler, happily for the 
country, remained at his post, as did also Montgomery. 

With the few men who were left to him, Mont- 
gomery pushed on to join Arnold, who, after a weari- 
some march of thirty-two days through a wilderness 
of woods and mountains, had arrived in the neighbor- 
hood of Quebec. 

A junction with Montgomery was effected. The 
city was summoned to surrender, and the bearer of the 
12 



178 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

flag of truce, in defiance of the laws of war, was fired 
upon. Montgomery had expected the inhabitants to 
rise in his favor, but, though many of the principal 
persons in the town are said to have been favorers of 
the American cause, Carleton had the place and the 
people too thoroughly under control of the military to 
permit them to take any action. 

Three weeks were consumed in futile operations 
before Quebec, and at last, on the 31st of December, 
an attempt was made to take the place by storm, 
which had very nearly succeeded, when Montgomery, 
who, with too reckless bravery, had led the assault, 
was killed by a cannon ball. The second ofi^icer in 
command was far in the rear, and the gentleman who 
was nearest to Montgomery in front, bewildered by the 
death of the General, ordered a retreat. Arnold, who 
had succeeded in entering the town in another quarter, 
was wounded, and the retreat of Montgomery's men 
left Carleton at leisure to turn all his forces against 
the other parties engaged in the attack. 

The Americans were obliged to withdraw, leaving 
several of their men prisoners. To his honor, General 
Carleton treated these prisoners with great humanity, 
and Montgomery was honorably buried within the 
walls of the fort.* 

"■^•" General Montgomery wore at the time of his death a watch 
which his widow was anxious to obtain. Arnold sent word to 
Carleton that any sum asked would be paid for it, but it was im- 
mediately sent to him by Carleton. In 1818, Montgomery's 
remains were removed from Quebec to St. Paul's Church, New 
York, where they rest under a monument erected by order of 
Congress. A day or two before he left home, he was walking in 




Death of General Montgomery. 



p. 178. 



OPERATIONS IN CANADA. 179 

Arnold, wounded and suffering as he was, took the 
command, and, with a force at one time not exceeding 
five thousand men, he maintained the blockade of the 
fortress. 

" I am in the way of my duty," he wrote, " and I 
know no fear." 

Well would it have been for Arnold had he fallen 
with Montgomery while in " the way of duty." 

He maintained his blockade through the rigors of a 
Canadian winter, and on the first of April was joined 
by Wooster from Montreal. Arnold was on unfriendly 
terms with Wooster, and, suffering much with his 
wound, he obtained leave to go to ]\Iontreal. 

Smallpox broke out, and raged terribly in the 
American camp. Thomas succeeded Wooster, but by 
that time the ice in the river was breaking up, and as 
soon as navigation was open, the British fleet would 
arrive. One more attempt was made to take the place 
by storm, but the plan failed, and preparations were 
made to retreat. Reinforcements for the enemy arrived 
before these j)reparations were complete, and the Ameri- 
cans, who could not muster three hundred men at any 
point, withdrew, leaving behind valuable stores and 
arms, and even their sick, whom Carleton treated with 
great kindness, placing them in the general hospitals, 
and afterward allowing them to return home. 

Reinforcements for the English continuing to arrive, 

the grounds of his brother-in-law, Mr. Livingston, at Rhinebeck. 
He stuck a willow twig into the ground, saying, " Peter, let that 
grow, to remember me by." The tree did grow, and is, I believe, 
still standing. For this anecdote, I am indebted to Mr. Lossing. 



180 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Thomas was forced to retreat to the mouth of the 
Sorel, and shortly after his arrival, was taken ill of 
the smallpox, and died on the 2d of June. 

Sullivan succeeded him, and at first had sanguine 
expectations of defending the mouth of the Sorel. 
General Thompson, however, wdio had been sent on an 
expedition to Three Rivers, was betrayed by treacher- 
ous guides, and after great loss succeeded in rejoining 
Sullivan only with the greatest difficulty. 

The English numbered thirteen thousand, while Sul- 
livan, with the smallpox raging in his camp, had but 
little over two thousand five hundred men. It being 
the unanimous oj^inion of his officers that the post 
should be abandoned, Sullivan retreated with his artil- 
lery and stores, pursued along the Sorel by Burgoyne. 
On the 18th he was joined by Arnold Avith three hun- 
dred men, who had remained at Montreal till the last 
possible moment. 

The Americaas reached St. John's with the enemy 
in close pursuit. The commander wished to defend 
the fort, but the time of most of the militia had ex- 
pired, an overwhelming force was close at hand, and 
the prospect of being shut up in the fort, to face at 
once the British without and the smallpox within, was 
no encouragement to re-enlist. Sullivan destroyed 
everything that he could at St. John's and Chamblee, 
broke down the bridges, and continued his retreat to 
Isle Aux Noix, where he halted to hear from Washing- 
ton or Schuyler. 

Arnold, and Wilkinson, his aid, lingered behind till 
the enemy were within two miles, when they set fire to 



OPERATIONS m CANADA. 181 

the forts with their own hands, shot their horses, and 
in a boat hastened to overtake the flotilla. 

Sullivan wrote from Isle Aux Noix to Washington : 
"Whether we shall have well men enough to carry 
them (the sick) on, I much doubt, if we don't remove 
quickly, unless Heaven is pleased to restore health to 
this wretched army, now perhaps the most pitiful one 
that ever was formed." 

Sullivan, shortly after receiving orders from Schuy- 
ler, embarked his forces for Crown Point, and the cam- 
paign in Canada, which had cost so much in blood 
and treasure, was over. 

When we remember that Congress had received the 
news of the disastrous issue of this campaign just 
before the adoption of the Declaration, we can only 
wonder at their steady courage. The outlook was 
dark ; it was to human eyes almost hopeless, and yet 
as I write this sentence the midnight bells and cannon 
and the voice of a multitude sound the entrance of the 
great Rej^ublic into its hundredth year. 

" Canada would certainly have been an important 
acquisition," writes Washington to Congress on the 
oOtli of June, 1776, "and well worth the expenses in- 
curred in the pursuit of it. But as we could not re- 
duce it to our possession, the retreat of our army with 
so little loss, under such a variety of distresses, must be 
esteemed a most fortunate exit." 

The exit of the Canadian campaign, however, was 
esteemed anything but fortunate by the people on the 
Canadian frontier, who had looked to the army of the 
North as their defence against the Indians. New 



182 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Hampshire, the New Hampshire Grants, Berkshire 
county, and even the tracts along the Connecticut, were 
exposed to invasion by the withdrawal of the troops 
under Schuyler's orders. 

They were greatly and justly alarmed, and according 
to a principle existing in human nature, they looked 
for some one individual upon whom to throw the blame 
of their distress. 

Most unjustly they pitched upon General Schuyler. 
Sir John Johnson, as we have seen, had broken the 
parole he had given to Schuyler, and was doing his 
best to raise the Six Nations and the Tories to fall upon 
the settlements. Brant, who was to prove the cause 
of ruin to his people, was closely united with him 
and it was reported that they were marching down the 
Mohawk ready to murder and burn in all directions, 
and the terror of the Indians haunted every lonely 
farm-house and every village through New York and 
New England.* 

It was thought that Schuyler had shown too much 
favor to the Johnsons and to the British prisoners 

-:•: To "have an interest in Johnstown" was equivalent to being 
under the protection of Sir John and his allies, and in this part 
of the country it is still a proverbial saying : " I would not do 
so and so for an interest in Johnstown." The writer's father was 
closely connected with the Indians who remained in Western 
New York after the Revolution. The elder warriors laid the 
blame of their ruin on Brant and Johnson. One old squaw thus 
advised her son, a Seneca chief: '"Spose Yankee beat; 'spose 
Red Coat beat? Red Coat go away, Yankee stay here. Yankee 
live next, you Indian. Yankee pay you for fight Mm" The 
poor old lady, however, was as vainly wise as Cassandra. 

C. F. G. 



OPERATIONS IN CANADA. 183 

who had fallen into his hands. The Tories did all they 
could to encourage the discontent, and before long, 
meetings were held in towns and districts, and resolves 
were passed, expressing distrust of Schuyler, and insin- 
uating that he was a traitor to the cause. Some of 
these resolves were sent to the New York Provin- 
cial Congress and to Washington. All who knew 
Schuyler knew that the charges were groundless, but 
it was deemed best to forward them to the accused 
patriot. 

On the 21st of May, Washington wrote to Schuyler 
as follows : 

"I enclose for your perusal, copies of two informa- 
tions. From these you will readily discover the dia- 
bolical arts and schemes being carried on by the 
Tories and friends of Government to raise distrust, 
dissensions and divisions among us." 

From the unusual force of the words used by Wash- 
ington, it is evident that he was much moved. He 
says that he looks upon the charges not only " with an 
eye of disbelief, but with sentiments of detestation and 
abhorrence," and assures General Schuyler of his 
highest esteem and confidence. 

Schuyler, in his letter to the Provincial Congress, 
expresses himself with a moderation remarkable under 
the circumstances, and lays the charges made against 
him not only to the Tories, but to certain men Avho had 
been disappointed in obtaining office. 

" It is something singular," he says, " that at the 
very time I was sending troops to apprehend Tories, to 
whom I am so obnoxious, they would not hesitate 



184 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX, 

to assassinate me — the country below should be arm- 
ing against me as a Tory." 

To Washington, however, he writes with more 
energy, and complains that " at the very time assassins 
and incendiaries are employed to take away my life 
and destroy my property, a set of pretended Whigs — 
for such they are that have propagated these diaboli- 
cal tales — should proclaim him through all America as 
a traitor to his country." " There never was a man," 
says the provoked patriot, " so infamously scandalized 
and ill-treated as I am." 

I have told this story of General Schuyler at some 
length, as it is but one specimen of the numerous trou- 
bles which at that time beset Washington and his gen- 
erals. 

Those who figure to themselves the career of a hero, 
are apt to picture a man constantly doing grand and 
dignified deeds, in a grand and dignified fashion, in an 
atmos^^here far above the petty vexations and troubles 
that wear out the patience of common humanity ; but 
no conception can be more false. The heroic life is 
made up, like other lives, of details, and " he that en- 
dures overcomes." 

Lee, who had at first been destined for Canada, had 
been appointed to the Southern Department, much to 
his disappointment, which he was not slow to express. 
Washington, in a letter to his brother Augustine, thus 
sketches Lee's character : 

" He is the first in military knowledge and experi- 
ence that we have in the whole army. He is zealously 
attached to the cause, honest and well-meaning, but 



OPERATIONS m CAXADA. 185 

rather fickle and violent, I fear, in his temper. How- 
ever, as he possesses an uncommon share of good sense 
and spirit, I congratulate my countrymen on his ap- 
pointment to that department." 

Nothing can form a greater contrast to the restrained, 
calm style of Washington than the letters of Lee, who, 
while discharging with great ability the duties of his 
southern command, nevertheless scolded, fretted and 
complained, with what Irving calls " whimsical and 
splenetic humor." 

He had quarrelled with the Committee of Safety in 
New York, and he was equally out of humor with the 
provincial authorities in Virginia. " My situation," 
he writes, " is just as I expected. I am afraid I shall 
make a shabby figure, without any real demerits of 
my own. I am like a dog in a dancing-school. I can 
only act from surmise, and I have a very good chance 
of surmising wrong. I am sorry to grate your ears 
with a truth, but must, at all events, assure you that 
the Provincial Congress of New York are angels of 
decision when compared with your countrymen, the 
Committee of Safety, assembled at Williamsburg. 
From Pendleton Bland, the treasurer, and company — 
* Libera nos Domine.' " 

A letter written a little later is as fall of praise as 
the one just quoted is of condemnation. 

" A noble spirit," he tells Washington, " pervades all 
orders of men." He is " on the best terms with the 
Senatorial part, as well as with the people at large, and 
will endeavor to preserve their confidence and good 
opinion." He had formed two companies of grenadiers 



186 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

to each regiment, with spears thirteen feet long. 
" Their rifles," he writes — " for they are all riflemen — 
they sling over their shoulders, and their appearance is 
formidq^ble." He likewise furnished his troops with four 
ounce rifle amusettes, which weapon, he avers with 
emphasis, " will carry an infernal distance," and boasts 
that the two ounce rifles will hit a sheet of paper at 
five hundred yards. 

Lee's confidence in that American weapon, the rifle, 
was not misplaced. In October, 1775, the Britsh had 
made an attempt to land and burn Hampton, but they 
were repulsed by Colonel Woodford, with only one hun- 
dred men. So deadly was the rifle fire that the boats 
were compelled to retreat. 

The next day the whole fleet made an attack, but so 
sure was the aim of the riflemen, that the ships could 
hardly be managed, as the men on duty were picked 
off* one after the other. Two of the sloops drifted 
ashore, and before the fleet could escape, the people of 
the town and Woodford's corps had destroyed five ves- 
sels, to the consternation of the British, who, until a 
very late period, had no idea of the use of sharp- 
shooters. 

On the 9th of December, an encounter of the two 
forces, near Great Bridge, not far from Norfolk, re- 
sulted in a victory for the Americans. Lord Dunmore 
was driven out, and the Tories and their families, whom 
he had invited to join him, took refuge with him on 
board the fleet, while the unhappy negroes, whom he 
had allured to his standard from all sides, were left to 
starve, or to the mercies of their masters. The fleet 



OPERATIONS m CANADA. 187 

was much harassed by the fire from the town, and 
word was sent that if the Americans did not cease 
their attacks, and supply the fleet with provisions, the 
town would be bombarded. A flat refusal was given ; 
the threat was executed, and the town destroyed. 
Lord Dunmore, while the conflagration was in progress, 
added to the horror by a cannonade from the ships. 
Strange to say, however, not one- of the troops was 
killed, and but seven persons were wounded. 

The attacking parties who attempted to land were 
driven off*. Little of the town was left, and that little 
was destroyed by the consent of the inhabitants, that 
it might not at some future day fall into the hands of 
the English. 

Lord Dunmore continued to destroy houses and 
plantations along the coast, having as little regard to 
friends as to foes, and converting, by his folly and 
cruelty, many loyalists to the American cause. It is 
said that he intended to destroy Mount Vernon and 
take Mrs. Washington prisoner, but the design failed. 

In the beginning of June, the British fleet, under Sir 
Henry CHinton, appeared off" Charleston. 

Hardly, however, did the ships come in sight, than 
Lee was marching his troops into the city. The people 
received him with great joy, as they had formed a high 
idea of his military genius. 

Though James' Island and Sullivan's Island, which 
were the keys of the harbor, were fortified, Lee wrote 
to Washington that he found the town utterly defence- 
less. Great, therefore, was his relief when he saw that 
Sir Henry Clinton, instead of running past the two 



188 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

little forts, and sailing directly into the harbor, was 
preparing to attack Sullivan's Island. 

" He has lost an opportunity, such as, I hope, will 
never occur again," said Lee, " of taking the town." 

From the 1st to the 28th of June, Sir Henry Clinton 
kept his men at work on what was then known as 
Long Island, to oppose Colonel Thompson, on Sullivan's 
Island. 

The heat on the burning sand was intense, the water 
was bad, and provisions were scanty and inferior. The 
health of the British troops suffered, and their spirits 
declined. 

On the 28th of June, the attack was begun by Sir 
Peter Parker, who, from the thunder bomb, threw 
shells at the fort. The contest continued for twelve 
hours, and Lee speaks in the highest terms of the 
courage of his men. 

He passed over to the fort in a small boat, to animate 
his troops, but says he found they had no occasion for 
such encouragement. His letter to Washington is as 
follows : 

" The cool courage they displayed astonished and en- 
raptured me, for I do assure you, my dear General, I 
never experienced a better fire. The noble fellows who 
were mortally wounded conjured their brethren never 
to abandon the standard of liberty. Those who lost 
their limbs deserted not their posts. Upon the whole, 
they behaved like Romans of the third century." 

The coolness of the American troops is mentioned 
with admiration by a British historian. 

" While the continued fire of our ships," he says, 



OPERATIONS IN CANADA. 189 

" seemed sufficient to shake the firmness of the bravest 
enemy and daunt the courage of the most veteran sol- 
dier, the return made by the fort could not fail of call- 
ing for the respect as well as of highly incommoding 
the brave seamen of Britain. They stuck to their guns 
with the greatest constancy and firmness, fired de- 
liberately and slowly, and took a cool and effective aim. 
Never did our marines, in an engagement of the same 
nature with any foreign enemy, experience so rude an 
encounter." 

The fire from the ships did not produce the expected 
effect. Several of the ships ran aground, while one, 
a frigate bearing the ill-omened name of Actseon, re- 
mained. She was set on fire and abandoned, her guns 
being left loaded. The Americans, however, boarded 
her, secured her colors, and the ship's bell, carried off 
three boat loads of stores, and fired her guns at the 
Bristol before she blew^ up. 

The battle continued till near ten o'clock p. m., 
with great loss to the British. Among the number 
killed, was Lord Campbell, late Governor of the Prov- 
ince, who served as a volunteer on board the fleet. 
The ships were torn almost to pieces, and at last Sir 
Peter Parker withdrew his shattered vessels to Five 
Fathom Hole. On the 31st of June, General Clinton, 
with Cornwallis and the troops, escorted by Sir Peter 
Parker, sailed for New York. 

It was a most important victory, for it occurred at a 
time when the British were desirous of making a great 
impression, both in the New World and in the Old. 

In the first encounter between the Americans and a 



190 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

regular British fleet, the despised " Provincials " had 
put to rout an experienced admiral and general, and 
severely injured the naval force hitherto considered 
almost invincible. 

Lord Howe was then on his way to act " as commis- 
sioner to settle all difficulties, or as commander to 
prosecute the war." In whatever capacity circum- 
stances might decide his lordship to act, the result of 
the Charleston battle was not encouraging. 

The whole loss of the Americans was but thirty-five 
men. The name of Fort Sullivan was changed to Fort 
Moultrie, a well-merited honor to its defender. Lee, 
in his report to Washington, speaks with mingled 
thankfulness and contempt of " the dilatoriness and 
stupidity of the enemy." 

Most welcome were the tidings of this victory to 
Washington, who was daily dreading an attack on 
New York. With unusual familiarity he writes to 
Schuyler : " Sir Peter Parker and his fleet got a severe 
drubbing." 

On the 21st of July, a general order announced the 
victory to the army, as follows : 

" The General has great pleasure in communicating 
to the officers and soldiers of the army the signal suc- 
cess of the American arms under General Lee. With 
such a bright example before us, of what can be done 
by brave and spirited men, fighting in defence of their 
country, we shall be loaded with a double share of in- 
famy if we do not acquit ourselves with courage, or a 
determined resolve to conquer or die." 

The order further exhorts every officer and soldier to 



OPERATIONS IN CANADA. 191 

pay the greatest attention to his arms and health — to 
have the former in the best condition for action, and, 
by cleanliness and care to preserve the latter ; to be 
exact in discipline, obedient to superiors, and vigilant 
on duty. "With such preparation, and a suitable 
spirit, there can be no doubt that, by the blessing 
of Heaven, we shall repel our cruel invaders, preserve 
our country, and gain the greatest honor." 



CHAPTER XI. 

WASHINGTON IN NEW YORK. 

WASHINGTON and his men had need of all the 
encouragement they could derive from Lee's vic- 
tories at the South. Ever since the 29th of June, 
General Howe, with a fleet and transports containing 
his army, had been lying at Sandy Hook. 

On the 6th of July he landed nine thousand men on 
Staten Island, and waited for the arrival of his brother, 
Admiral Howe, with the English regulars and the re- 
doubtable Hessians. On the 11th, arrived Sir Peter 
Parker and Sir Henry Clinton, from Charleston. The 
12th of July was a day of great and painful excite- 
ment for New York. On that day two ships of war 
were seen to separate from the fleet and to stand in 
toward the city. One was the Phoenix, of forty guns ; 
the other the Rose, of twenty. Their commander w^as 
Captain Wallace, whose marauding expeditions along 
the New England coast and tyrannical conduct in 
Rhode Island had made his name detested by the 
Americans. The troops were immediately at their 
alarm posts, but the ships, with favoring wind and tide, 
swept up the bay toward the Hudson. The city bat- 
teries and those from Paulus Hook, on the Jersey 
shore, opened fire, and the ships returned the fire with 
(192) 



WASHINGTON IN NEW YORK. 193 

broadsides. The citizens, placed in a position where 
they could neither fight nor flee, were thrown into a 
panic. Women and children did their best or their 
worst to increase the confusion, and their screams and 
cries, as they ran hither and thither lamenting their 
supposed approaching destruction, were anything but 
encouraging or animating to the soldiers. 

Washington was at that moment writing to Congress 
on matters of grave importance. He urged that body 
to take into consideration the great danger of the 
Northern settlements, owing not only to the retreat of 
the Northern army, but to the fact that the smallpox 
continuing to rage among the troops returned from 
Canada, prevented others from enlisting. He also 
begged that Congress would appoint an office for audit- 
ing accounts — a request he had made before. 

"Two motives," he says, "induce me to urge the 
matter: First, a conviction of its utility; secondly, 
that I may stand exculpated if hereafter it should 
appear that money has been improperly expended and 
necessaries for the army obtained upon unreasonable 
terms. 

" For me, whose time is employed from the hour of 
my rising till I retire to bed again, to go into personal 
examination of the accounts of such an army as this, 
with any degree of precision and exactness, without 
neglecting other matters of equal importance, is utterly 
impracticable." 

He goes on to urge the necessity of the proposed re- 
form, but the letter, which is dated on the 11th of July, 
breaks off" in the midst and was finished on the 12th. 
13 



194 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

The concluding paragraph not only gives the alarm- 
ing news that the two vessels of war had passed the 
batteries uninjured into the Hudson, but that the Brit- 
ish fleet were saluting a line-of-battle ship which had 
just come in, and which, by the St. George's flag at her 
foretop mast, was known to be the ship of Admiral Howe. 

On that same day another disembarkation took place 
on Staten Island, and there and on board the English 
transports an army of nearly thirty thousand men was 
arrayed against the new Republic. 

With the enemy so near, and so greatly outnumber- 
ing the American army, great vigilance was necessary 
to guard against the foes within. In consequence of 
the recent plot of Governor Tryon and his friends, a 
secret committee had been organized. The Provincial 
Convention had removed to White Plains but this 
committee had its sittings in New York. 

To this body Washington, on the 13th, addressed a 
letter suggesting that all persons of known disaffection 
and enmity to the cause of America be removed from 
the city and its environs. With his usual good sense 
he observes, " that justice to the inferior agents while 
the others pass unnoticed only excites compassion and 
censure." " A suspicion that there are many ministe- 
rial agents among us would justly alarm soldiers of 
more experience and discipline than ours, and I foresee 
very dangerous consequences if a remedy for this evil 
is not soon and efficaciously applied." 

He suggests that the Tory prisoners confined in the 
city jail should be removed, declares that it is with 
extreme reluctance that he interferes to advise the 



WASHINGTON IN NEW YORK. 195 

civil authority, and he also says that the officers of the 
army, from their want of knowledge of the inhabitants 
as well as for other reasons, are quite incompetent to 
superintend the removal of the suspected and accused, 
and that the matter could not be placed in military 
hands without "great inconvenience to the citizens." 

Extreme as was the emergency, pressing as was the 
danger, he would not step over what he conceived the 
exact line of his duty. His letter had its effect, as we 
learn from the journal of the New York Convention 
that thirteen Tory prisoners Avere removed to the jail 
at Litchfield, in Connecticut. The mayor of the city 
was one of the number, but as he was not supposed to 
be as guilty as the other conspirators, he was treated 
with as much indulgence as was consistent with his 
safe keeping. 

Lord Howe and his brother had been appointed as 
Commissioners to treat with the Americans, and their 
proceedings soon show^ed how necessary had been the 
precautions taken in regard to the Tories. The powers 
of the two brothers w^re great. They were authorized 
to offer a free pardon to all who would return to their 
allegiance to the crow^n. Towns and colonies professing 
themselves penitent were to be excepted from the non- 
intercourse penalty, and rewards were promised to those 
who should help to restore tranquillity. 

Proclamations to this effect wxre sent on shore, ad- 
dressed to the Colonial Governors, and meant to circu- 
late among the people. 

Congress, however, denounced the proclamation as 
" a scheme to amuse and disarm the people." Few of 



196 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

the patriotic party had any belief in the fraternal and 
affectionate tone taken by the British Government, 
when they remembered the burning of Falmouth and 
Norfolk, Wallace's course in New England, Dunmore's 
ravages in Virginia, and the persistent attempts made 
to stir up the Indians. 

On the 19th of July, an incident occurred which 
must in some measure have taught Lord Howe the 
temper of the commander to whom he was opposed. 

About three o'clock in the afternoon, Washington 
was informed that a flag of truce from Lord Howe was 
coming up. Its bearer, Lieutenant Brown, sought a 
conference with the Commander-in-chief. 

Washington, then in his headquarters at the Ken- 
nedy House, No. 1 Broadway, immediately called 
together a council of such general officers as were not 
on duty. All agreed that their Commander should re- 
ceive no letter which should be directed to him merely 
as a private gentlemen. If such were not the case, 
however, the bearer of the flag of truce was to be re- 
ceived under a safe conduct. 

Instructions were given to Colonel Reed, Washing- 
ton's trusted friend, to go down and receive the officer, 
and manage the affair as the council had decided. 

Colonel Reed, who was then acting as adjutant gen- 
eral, immediately took a boat, and met the flag of truce 
half-way between Staten Island and Governor's Island. 
The common civilities passed between the two gentle- 
men, and then Lieutenant Brown told Reed that he 
had a letter from Lord Howe to Mr. Washington, and 
showed the direction " To George Washington, Esq." 



WASHINGTON IN NEW YORK. 197 

Colonel Reed replied that there was no such person 
in the army, and said that a letter for the General 
could not be received with such a direction. Lieuten- 
ant Brown appeared greatly concerned, and said that 
the letter was rather civil than military; that Lord 
Howe regretted he had not arrived sooner; Lord 
How^e had great powers. 

There was evident anxiety to have the letter received, 
though the officer said he knew nothing of its contents. 
Colonel Reed's orders, however, were positive, and they 
parted, the letter undelivered. HoAvever, after the 
Lieutenant had gone some distance, his boat returned, 
and Reed waited to receive him. 

" Under what title," he asked, " does General— that 
is, Mr. Washington, choose to be addressed ?" 

Reed replied that the station of the Commander was 
well known, and that, as this whole matter had been 
discussed the preceding summer, the Admiral could be 
at no loss how to address his letters. 

Lieutenant Brown expressed his disappointment and 
regret, and the interview was ended. 

"I would not," wrote Washington, in giving an 
account of this matter, " sacrifice essentials to punctilio, 
but in this instance, the opinion of others concurring 
with my own, I deem it a duty to my country and to 
my appointment to insist on that respect which, in any 
other than a public view, I would willingly have 
w^aived." 

He added that he had no doubt that the British 
commander would fall upon some way to communicate 
his message. 



198 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Congress passed a resolution approving Washing- 
ton's course in the matter, and ordering all officers to 
follow his example. 

In the meantime, the two ships up the river were a 
subject of great alarm and anxiety. The Hudson was 
the highway to the interior of the country, and there 
was hardly any injury to the American cause which 
might not result if it fell into the enemy's hands. 
Were troops landed from the ships, they might take 
possession of the passes, cut off all intercourse between 
the Northern and Southern Army and intercept all 
supplies for the forces. Still worse, these two threat- 
ening ships might be loaded with arms, which, distri- 
buted to the Tories, might cause a general rising and 
kindle an internal war in every county and town, at a 
time when every man was needed for the defence of 
New York. 

The two ships lay at anchor in Haverstraw Bay, safe 
from the artillery of that day, and their boats were 
daily sent out to take soundings. 

Washington urged on the Provincial Congress the 
necessity of watching their dangerous invaders, and 
guarding the country along the Hudson and prevent- 
ing their advance. He wrote to many leading gentle- 
men up the river, and recommended them to be vigi- 
lant both over the open foe on the ships and the trai- 
tors on land. 

The war spirit along the Hudson, however, needed 
little encouragement. The militia were at once ordered 
out, and men armed with whatever came to hand were 
stationed near Tarrytown and along the shores of the 



WASHINGTON IN NEW YORK. 199 

Tappan Sea. The militia also came down from Dutchess 
county and Cortlandt's Manor to guard the public 
stores at Peekskill and mount guard at the entrance 
of the Highlands. 

Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt, whose manorial home 
was at the mouth of the Croton, watched with his regi- 
ment along Haverstraw Bay and the Tappan Sea, and 
the w^estern shore was guarded day and night with 
equal vigilance. Sentinels were posted on every rocky 
height to give the alarm should the enemy try to land. 

Everywhere the men of the country who understood 
the use of the rifle formed into companies, chose their 
own officers, and stood ready to repel invasion at a 
moment's warning. 

Infuriating, indeed, it must have been to the men 
thus assembled to watch the Phoenix and the Eo>^c 
lying calmly in the July sunshine, their decks shaded 
with awnings and their boats rowing to and fro as they 
took Soundings, in preparation, as it seemed, for farther 
advances into the heart of the State. 

At night their barges rowed up and down the river, 
and, in spite of the watch maintained, boats would 
sometimes visit the ships from shore, carrying not only 
fresh provisions, but information gathered and retained 
by the royalists. The only exploit performed on shore 
by the crews of these ships was the plundering and 
burning of a solitary house at the foot of the Dunder- 
berg, and on their way back to the ships the perform- 
ers of this gallant action were severely injured by the 
American marksmen. 

The near vicinity of these ships, however, caused 



200 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

great uneasiness to Washington, especially because he 
feared that the Tories would furnish intelligence to 
their commanders. On the 19th of July, he again 
urged on the Committee of Safety the removal of the 
disaffected from the city, and rather sternly gave warn- 
ing against "ill-timed lenity." 

Great care and vigilance was used in taking up dis- 
affected persons, and in spite of Washington's objec- 
tions to the military authority being employed, it 
seems to have been used in some instances, as General 
Green gives a laughable account of an adventure of 
his own while engaged in examining certain men sus- 
pected of treachery. He calls them " a poor parcel of 
ignorant, cowardly fellows," and says they had only 
been persuaded "by their grandmothers and aunts" to 
run away to escape drafting. " They wept like chil- 
dren," he continues, "and appeared exceedingly sor- 
rowful. They do not appear to be acquainted with one 
public matter. I beg your Excellency's direction how 
to dispose of them." 

We are not informed what became of these unlucky 
individuals, but let us hope they were sent back in 
safety to their aunts and grandmothers. 

On the 19th of July, Washington's prophecy that 
Howe would find means to send his message was veri- 
fied by the arrival of an armed aid-de-camp with a 
flag of truce. This officer asked that Colonel Patter- 
son, the British Adjutant-General, might have an in- 
terview with General Washington. 

Keed, who met the envoy, gave his consent in Wash- 
ington's name. The next day Colonel Patterson 



WASHINGTON IN NEW YORK. 201 

arrived, was received by Reed aud Webb and con- 
ducted to Washington's headquarters. 

Washington was in full uniform, with his officers 
and guards about him, and received Howe's envoy with 
his usual stately courtesy. 

Colonel Patterson addressed him as " Your Excel- 
lency," and endeavored to explain that in the former 
direction of his letter General Howe had only adopted 
a course usual among great personages, wdien there 
were doubts as to the rank of the parties addressed. 
This condescending attempt to instruct him in the eti- 
quette of the great world Avas not likely to be received 
in very good part by a man of Washington's character. 
However, he made no reply, and the English officer 
produced a letter, directed to " George Washington, 
Esq., et cetera, et cetera," hoping that the " et cetera, 
which implied everything," would remove all difficulty. 

Washington answered that if et ceteras implied 
everything, they also implied anything. A letter ad- 
dressed to a person acting in a public capacity should 
have some inscription to mark the difference between 
it and a mere private letter, and he should entirely 
refuse to receive any letter directed to him as a private 
person when it referred to his public aud official sta- 
tion. Colonel Patterson then tried to give the contents 
of the letter in conversation, and dwelt upon the favor 
and regard shown to America, the pleasure Lord Howe 
would feel in making peace, and the great powers en- 
trusted to him for that purpose. AVashington, refer- 
ring to Lord Howe's circular, said the power of the 
commission seemed limited to granting pardons. Tho^e 



202 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

who had committed no crime needed no pardon, and 
such was the position of the Americans, who were only 
defending their indisputable rights. 

Colonel Patterson justly remarked that a discussion 
of this matter would open a wide field, and the confer- 
ence terminated, the English officer expressing himself 
obliged for the courtesy with which he had been 
treated. 

The Eepublic was but fifteen days old, but, in the 
person of her Commander-in-chief, she had made her- 
self respected. 

Washington, and some of his generals, as " provin- 
cials," had been treated by the King's officers as an 
inferior caste, while engaged in the King's service, and 
it must have been no small satisfaction to them when 
they learned that Lord Howe had written home that 
he should think it best in future to give the American 
generals the titles due to their rank. 

In the meantime matters were growing worse and 
worse with the northern army. Gates, who had been 
sent to succeed Thomas, had been obliged to retreat 
from Crown Point, after destroying the fortifications, 
and was now at Ticonderoga. 

Every one was dismayed at this step. Washing- 
ton, in a letter to Gates, written on this same 19th of 
July, expresses deep regret, and wishes that measures 
could yet be changed. Gates, in his reply, gives a terri- 
ble picture of the state of the army, still suffering 
from smallpox. "Everything," he says, "is infected 
with the pestilence — the clothes, the blankets, the air, 
the ground they tread upon." Three or four thousand 



WASHING TOX IX XEW YORK. 203 

men were ill in the general hospital at Fort George, 
and the disease was increasing. Gates, in this letter, 
indulges in some rather bitter remarks upon the offi- 
cers of Washington's council, who, as he thought, did 
not make allowance enough for the difficulties of his 
position, which were certainly great. 

In addition to tlie other troubles besetting the north- 
ern army, were differences arising between the geuerals. 
Sullivan was so hurt that Gates should be sent to 
supersede him in the command, that he went to Phila- 
delphia and offered his resignation, but was persuaded 
to remain in the service. Gates, who had been ap- 
pointed to command the army while in Canada, thought 
that his commission entitled him to supersede Schuy- 
ler on this side of the frontier. Schuyler refused to 
give way, and was supported by the government, and 
Gates, though he professed himself satisfied, was vexed 
and mortified. 

The sectional jealousies which were rife in Wash- 
ington's army were also rife among the troops under 
Schuyler, and Washington wrote to him entreating 
him to put men and officers in mind of the duty of for- 
bearance and harmony among those who were " mutu- 
ally contending for all that freemen hold dear." 

An affair, nearly concerning Connecticut, occurred 
at this time which tended still farther to embarrass 
Washington, and as it illustrates the state of matters 
at the period, we give the story as it is told by Irving. 
Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, had raised a 
troop of four or five hundred light horse, under the 
command of Colonel Thomas Seymour. Supposing, 



204 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

from the suddenness with which they had been called 
out, that there was instant occasion for their services, 
they had hastened on in advance of the militia, and 
had left home in such haste, that many of them had 
not even provided themselves with a blanket or a 
change of clothes. 

Such was the scarcity of forage, however, that their 
horses were obliged to be sent to pasture about the 
neighborhood of Kingsbridge, their owners paying half 
a dollar a week for them. 

Washington thought that, under the circumstances, 
they would be of no use as horsemen, but was anxious 
that they should remain and do duty as infantry. At 
first the men agreed to this arrangement. Troopers in 
the army are exempt from certain duties that fall to 
infantry soldiers, and the light horse, on being re- 
quired to serve like other troops, were discontented, 
and asked leave to go home. 

"Washington was vexed, and gave them their dis- 
missal in a short note, and they left the camp morti- 
fied and troubled. 

They were substantial farmers and property-owners, 
and at great sacrifice to themselves and their families 
they had left home at a moment's warning, quite unpre- 
pared for a campaign on foot ; but there were other 
reasons to account for their discontent besides their 
reluctance to serve as infantry. Some of the city regi- 
ments and some from the South were well-armed and 
dressed in fine uniforms, and having had the advan- 
tage of a few months' drill, looked down upon the plain 
Connecticut men with their irregular equipments. The 



WASHINGTON IN NEW YORK. 205 

"macaroni officers," as they were called, sneered at 
captains and lieutenants who were distinguished from 
their men only by a cockade, and were still more 
amused at the sight of a few old regimental coats of 
scarlet, trimmed with tarnished lace. 

Some of these old regimentals, however, and their 
wearers, had witnessed the siege of Louisburg, and were 
by no means proper subjects of ridicule to untried 
soldiers, with the first gloss yet on their buff and 
scarlet. 

It is evident from Colonel Seymour's letter to Gov- 
ernor Trumbull that he had been much vexed. " If 
the butterflies and coxcombs were away from the 
army," he says, " we should not be put to so much dif- 
ficulty in obtaining men of common sense to engage in 
the service of their country." Well might John 
Adams say that it required "more serenity of temper, 
a deeper understanding and more courage than fell to 
the lot of Marlborough to ride this whirlwind and 
direct this storm." 

In the meantime General Putnam had conceived the 
idea that the two ships lying in the Hudson might be 
stopped by obstructions sunk in the channel of the 
river, and he occupied himself busily with preparing 
a barricade of logs and sunken ships to intercept the 
Phcenix and the Bose on their passage down. There 
was also a plan to attack Lord Howe's fleet with fire- 
ships, while at the same time a descent was to be 
made upon the troops on Staten Island, by the soldiers 
from Mercer's flying camp and others. The latter 
plan, however, proved a failure. Anderson, the pro- 



206 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

jector of the fire-ships, found it impossible to construct 
a sufficient number in time, and though Mercer and 
Major Knowlton made two attempts to invade Staten 
Island by night, both miscarried. 

In a few days arrived a hundred sail, bearing rein- 
forcements, among them a thousand Hessians.* 

••••King George was personally active in raising mercenary- 
troops to coerce the rebellious Americans. He wrote a letter 
witb his own hand to the States General of Holland soliciting 
them to sell their Scotch brigade for services against the Ameri- 
cans. The request was indignantly refused, and some very strong 
language was used in the Assembly about the King's proposition, 
declaring that the Americans were "a brave people, defending in 
a manly and religious manner those rights which as men they 
derived from God and not from the Legislature of Great Britain." 

The Parliament of Ireland voted four thousand troops, and the 
King also entered into a treaty with the Landgrave of Hesse Cas- 
sel, the Duke of Brunswick, the Prince of Hesse, and the Prince 
of Waldeck, for seventeen thousand men. 

The friends of America in the House of Parliament contended 
against the measure in vain. It was passed by two hundred and 
forty -two to eighty -eight. The German Princes drove a very hard 
bargain. England, moreover, guaranteed their domains from 
attack. The unfortunate Germans were pressed into the service 
by the most tyrannical means. Men were taken from church 
while engaged in divine service, and hurried away without a 
farewell to their families. The King had been unwilling to give 
commissions to German officers to procure men, as he said it 
" would amount, in plain English, to making me a kidnapper, 
which I cannot think a very honorable occupation ;" but the 
kidnapping took place, nevertheless. Frederick the Great, of 
Prussia, who was by no means scrupulous in the use of means, 
expressed great contempt for this "man traffic," and as they 
passed through his dominions he levied on them the toll for so 
many head of cattle. 

These men were, for the most part, ignorant and brutal, and 



WASHINGTON IN NEW YORK. 207 

These troops were disembarked and employed in forti- 
fying the island, and the plan of an attack was given up. 

On August 3d, Washington issued an order reliev- 
ing the troops, except in case of necessity, from fatigue 
duty on Sunday, that they might attend divine service. 
He censures the increase of "the foolish and wicked 
practice of profane swearing." " We can have little 
hope of the blessing of Heaven on our arms if we 
insult it by our impiety and folly ; added to this it is 
a vice so mean and so low, without any temptation, 

those who had seen service had been trained in the most merci- 
less school of war the age atforded. 

They were first let loose on Long Island, and were objects of 
such hatred to the Americans that their name is still used among 
us as a term of reproach. Many of them, however, afterwards de- 
serted, induced by a resolution of Congress offering them the 
rights of citizens and a bounty in land. This resolution was 
translated into German, and was circulated among them as occa- 
sion olTered. Dr. Franklin caused these resolutions to be wrapped 
round papers of tobacco, which were allowed to fall as plunder 
into the hands of the mercenaries, and were widely circulated 
before the officers discovered the ruse of the philosopher. 

After the departure of the British from New York, many Amer- 
ican householders were surprised to tind the dreaded mercenaries 
emerging from cellars, smoke-houses, and other places of con- 
cealment, asking for bread and for employment, conducting 
themselves with great humility, and dreading nothing so much 
as a return to their native land. 

One of these Hessians was, after the Revolution, a frequent vis- 
itor at my grandfather's. He was a man of great personal cour- 
age, but quite unlettered and extremely superstitious. As he 
had a store of wonderful tales of " money watchers," elves, and 
other wonderful beings, he was a great favorite with the children. 

The Hessians generally subsided into peaceable, law-abiding 
citizens, and many respectable families trace to them their origin. 



208 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

that every man of sense and character detests and 
despises it." 

On the 3d of August an attack was made by six 
row-galleys upon the Phoenix and the Rose. The 
galleys fought for two hours, their crews behaving with 
the greatest bravery, but they were at last obliged to 
withdraw, after having done considerable damage to 
the ships. 

"We hope," wrote the commander of the expedi- 
tion, Colonel Tupper, " to have another touch at those 
pirates before they leave our river, which God pros- 
per." 

The forces of the enemy collected about New York 
^ere about thirty thousand men. The American force 
was rated at seventeen thousand. For the most part 
they were quite new to service and unacquainted with 
drill and discipline. One-fourth of them were on the 
sick list with low fevers and camp dysentery. Others 
were absent on furlough or in other commands, and 
the remainder was left to defend posts and stations 
distributed over several miles of country, and a sea- 
board open to attack at a score of different points. 
The sectional differences and jealousies prevailing 
among the troops from different States added very 
seriously to Washington's troubles. 

" It is with great concern," he says, in one of his 
general orders, " that the General understands that 
jealousies have arisen among the troops from the differ- 
ent provinces, and reflections are frequently thrown out 
which can only tend to irritate each other, and injure 
the noble cause in which we are engaged, and which 



WASHINGTON IN NEW YORK. 209 

we ought to support with one hand aud one heart. 
The General most earnestly entreats the officers and 
soldiers to consider the consequences, and that they 
can in no way assist our enemies more effectually than 
by making divisions among ourselves ; that the honor 
and success of the army, and the safety of our bleeding 
country, depend upon harmony and good agreement 
with each other ; that the provinces are all united to 
oppose the common enemy, and all distinction is sunk 
in the name of American. To make this name honor- 
able, and preserve the liberty of our country, ought to 
be our only emulation, and he will be the best soldier 
and the best patriot ^vll0 contributes most to this glo- 
rious work, whatever be his station, or from whatever 
part of the continent he may come. Let all distinc- 
tion of nations, countries and provinces, therefore, be 
lost in the generous contest who shall behave with the 
greatest courage against the enemy, and the most kind- 
ness and good humor to each other. If there be any 
officers or soldiers so lost to virtue aud a love of their 
country as to continue in such practices after this order, 
the General assures them, and is authorized by Con- 
gress to declare to the whole army, that such persons 
shall be severely punished and dismissed from the 
service in disgrace." 

An attack from the fleet was hourly expected, and 
Washington, by a general order, urged both men and 
officers to have their arms in readiness at a moment's 
warning, and not to be out of their encampments, 
" especially in the morning, or at flood tide." It was 
thought that the first move of the enemy would be to 

14 



210 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

take possession of Brooklyn Heights. That once done, 
another detachment might land above the city, and the 
army be thus surrounded and cut off in detail. 

To defend various points, widely separated from each 
other, and guard a wide extent of country, was abso- 
lutely necessary, if Washington was to maintain his 
position. As he wrote to Governor Trumbull, he had 
to oppose an army of thirty thousand experienced vet- 
erans with about one-third the number of raw troops, 
and these scattered about fifteen miles apart, and he 
asked for militia. 

Governor Trumbull responded by an order for four- 
teen regiments of militia, to march directly to New 
York. " These regiments," he writes to Washington, 
" consist of substantial farmers, whose business will 
require their return as soon as it is safe and convenient 
to dismiss them." 

One significant fact indicates the extreme emergency 
of the time. The New York Convention, in calling 
out the militia, to form temporary camps, and to 
strengthen the post on Long Island, ordered that each 
man who should have no weapon should bring with 
him " a shovel, spade or pickaxe, or a scythe, straight- 
ened and fixed on a pole." 

Washington made his last preparations. All sus- 
pected persons were sent away. Some of these feared 
that their property was to be confiscated and their 
families ruined, but they were assured that nothing of 
the sort was intended, and by all that we can gather 
from Washington's letters, he seems to have treated 
them with great lenity. 



WASHINGTON IN NEW YORK. 211 

All state papers were packed up, to be sent to Con- 
gress. Mrs. AVashington was in Philadelphia, and the 
other ladies of the officers' families were all sent away. 

On the 17th of August, Washington heard that 
troops had been embarked upon the enemy's transports, 
provisions cooked for three days, and other prepara- 
tions made which seemed to indicate a departure from 
Staten Island. 

The j^eople in the city were in great anxiety and dis- 
tress. The terror which Lee had sneered at as " hys- 
terical," moved Washington's compassion, and he wrote 
as follows to the New York Convention : 

" When I consider that the City of New York will 
in all probability soon be the scene of a bloody con- 
flict, I cannot but view the great number of women, chil- 
dren and infirm persons remaining in it with the most 
melancholy concern. When the men-of-war passed up 
the river, the shrieks and cries of these poor creatures, 
running every way with their children, were truly dis- 
tressing, and I fear they will have an unhappy effect 
upon the ears and minds of our young and inexperi- 
enced soldiery. Can no method be devised for their 
removal ?" 

Without waiting for the action of the Convention, 
however, he put forth a proclamation advising the non- 
combatants to remove from the city while they could, 
and requiring the officers and men to do all in their 
power to assist the helpless and poor. The Convention 
seconded his effi^rts, and a committee was appointed to 
effect the desired removal as humanely and quickly 
as possible. 



212 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

During all these days of anxiety, the Phoenix and 
the Rose had been lying quietly in Haverstraw Bay. 
Two fire-ships, which had been built by Anderson, 
were sent up the Hudson to attempt their destruc- 
tion. One grappled the Phoenix, but such was the 
darkness, that she got to the leeward, and was cast off, 
without injury to the British ship. The other, making 
for the Bose, caught one of the tenders, grappled, and 
burnt her instead. The plan failed of its main object, 
but Wallace determined to retreat. His attempts to 
land had all been repulsed, and with severe loss to 
the English ; and now it appeared that, in addition to 
the rifle by day, he was to be harassed by fire at 
night. 

The next day, the 18th of August, they made all sail 
down the river, with a favoring wind. They were 
struck by cannon balls from the forts, and sustained 
some injury, but continued their course until they 
reached Putnam's barricade. A passage had been left 
open, to be closed in a day or two, and through this 
passage, guided by a deserter, the vessels made their 
way, and rejoined the fleet. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND. 

GENERAL GREENE, with a considerable force 
under his command, was stationed at Brooklyn. 
He had carefully acquainted himself with the ground 
and had his plan of defence. He had intended to 
occupy a range of wooded hills which, running from 
southwest to northeast, formed a barrier across the 
Island. Through these hills there were three passes 
w^hich it w^as most important to hold. One on the 
left of the works, leading eastward through the Bed- 
ford hills to the village of Jamaica ; a second passing 
directly from the centre of the lines through the 
wooded Hills to Flat Bush ; and a third on the right, 
running by Gowanus Cove to the Narrows and Graves- 
end Bay. 

It was impossible to prevent the landing of a force 
so superior as the British, but Greene had hoped by 
occupying these passes to keep them at bay. 

Most unhappily, however, General Greene was taken 
ill with a violent fever, and the command fell upon 
Sullivan, who, just returned from Lake Champlain, 
had not been able to acquaint himself with the ground. 

On the 21st came news that twenty thousand men 
were to attack Long Island and the Hudson, and that 

(213) 



214 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

at the same time other troops were to fall upon Bergen ' 
Point, Elizabethtown and Amboy. 

On the 22d the British landed at Gravesend about 
nine thousand men, driving back Colonel Hand's regi- 
ment of Pennsylvania riflemen, who had reached the 
line in safety, after setting fire to the stacks of hay and 
grain to keep them from the enemy. 

Washington thought that the enemy would make a 
forced march, and fall immediately with overwhelming 
force upon the lines at Brooklyn. He immediately 
sent over six battalions as a reinforcement to Sullivan. 
He could spare no more, for with the next tide the 
fleet might come up to the attack of the city. 

"Be cool, but determined," was Washington's order. 
" Do not fire at a distance, but wait for orders from 
your ofiicers. It is the General's express orders that 
if any man attempts to skulk, lie down, or retreat, 
without orders, he be instantly shot down as an exam- 
ple. He hopes that no such will be found in the 
country, but on the contrary, that every one, trusting 
in the smiles of Heaven in so just a cause, will behave 
with bravery and resolution." 

Most of these men had never been under fire, but 
Washington says "they went off" in high spirits, and 
that all who were capable of duty evinced the same 
cheerfulness." 

Sir Henry Clinton, who had the chief command, led 
the first division ; Lord Cornwallis, with the reserve, 
was sent to Flatbush, and the rest of the army ex- 
tended from the Narrows, near the ferry, through 
Utrecht and Gravesend to the village of Flatland. 



THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND. 215 

Lord Cornwallis, with Count Donop's corps of Hes- 
sians, two battalions of light infantry and six field 
pieces, came forward swiftly, meaning to seize the cen- 
tral pass through the hills. Hand and his riflemen, 
who were stationed there, made a gallant defence, and 
Cornwallis, who had been ordered not to risk an attack, 
took post that night in the village of Flatland. 

Meantime the city was in a state of great alarm and 
excitement, and the panic was not lessened by the 
rumor that Washington had resolved if he were driven 
to retreat to set fire to the town. Washington, as soon 
as informed of the report, wrote directly to the New 
York Convention as follows : 

" I can assure you, gentlemen, that this report is not 
founded on the least authority from me. On the con- 
trary, I am so sensible of the value of such a city, and 
the consequence of its destruction to many worthy 
citizens and their families, that nothing but the last 
necessity, and such as would justify me to the whole 
world, would induce me to give orders to that purpose." 

There were constant applications to Washington for 
safeguards, and as he went about the town he was 
beset by women with their children entreating to be 
sent away from danger. He was kind and patient 
with all, and wrote once more to the New York Con-» 
vention urging the removal of these helpless people, 
many of whom had not the means to leave the city. 

On the 24th, Washington crossed over to Brooklyn, 
and found, with concern, that there was some disorder 
in the American lines, OAving partly, no doubt, to the 
continued illness of General Greene. 



216 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

On returning to the city, he sent over General Put- 
nam to take the command. Putnam hurried over to 
his post. He had been "quite miserable" at being 
kept away from the front. The next day, August 
25th, Washington wrote to him censuring "the scat- 
tering, unmeaning and wasteful fire, which not only 
wasted ammunition, but prevented deserters from com- 
ing in, and he exhorted the officers to do their utmost 
to put down plundering and all disorderly and licenti- 
ous practices." 

"Men," he says, "who are not employed as mere 
hirelings, but have stepped forth in defence of every- 
thing that is dear and valuable, not only to themselves 
but to posterity, should take uncommon pains to con- 
duct themselves with the greatest propriety and good 
order." 

The British, meanwhile, had augmented their forces, 
which were now divided into three bodies. The Hes- 
sians, under De Heister, formed the centre at the village 
of Flatbush. General Grant commanded the left 
wing opposed to Lord Stirling, and the right wing, 
which was to act the most important part in the battle, 
was formed of chosen battalions under the command 
of Clinton, Cornwallis, Percy, and Lord Howe himself. 
. Washington sent over Colonel Haslet's fine Dela- 
ware regiment, which was united to Stirling's brigade. 
These troops were among the best equipped and best dis- 
ciplined in the service, and were stationed in the place 
of danger outside the lines. 

Washington spent the 26th in Brooklyn. There were 
many movements among the enemy's troops, and their 



THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND. 217 

number was increased. Washington remained all day 
in consultation with Putnam, who as yet had not been 
able to make himself acquainted with the exact posi- 
tion of his fortified posts, or the defiles of the confused 
mass of wooded hills which covered the site of the 
present city. It was evident that a general attack 
was at hand, and there was every reason to think that 
the fleet would act in concert with the army, and 
assail New York. 

He returned to the city full of care and anxiety. 

According to the plan concerted by Lord Howe, Sir 
Henry Clinton, with his division, moved from Flat- 
land on the evening of the 26th, and, guided by a 
Tory, arrived wdthin half a mile of the pass through 
the Bedford Hills — a pass which, once gained, com- 
manded the whole position, and enabled the British to 
get possession of the Jamaica road, and outflank the 
Americans on the left. 

So silently was the march conducted, that no alarm 
was given to Putnam and his men. Expecting to find 
the Bedford Pass strongly j^rotected, the British had 
halted, and were preparing for an attack, when an 
unlucky patrol, falling into their hands, betrayed the 
fact that the pass had been left unguarded, and that, 
beyond Bedford, the whole Jamaica road was occupied 
only by a few light volunteers. 

Sir Henry Clinton at once secured his advantage, 
and by the first dawn had taken possession of the 
heights, and was within three miles of Bedford. Here, 
as yet unseen and unheard by the Americans, he halted 
to refresh his men. 

V 



218 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

In the meantime, at the other extremity of the lines, 
Grant was keeping Lord Stirling busy. He had been 
ordered not to bring on a general action until he 
should hear that Clinton's movement had been success- 
fully made, and the two divisions exchanged cannon- 
shot and volleys of musketry without coming to closer 
quarters. 

De Heister, in the centre, followed the same plan, 
and, without advancing, kept up a sharp cannonade on 
Sullivan's men. Meanwhile five ships of war were seen 
beating up the bay, to the great terror of the city. 
The wind was adverse, however, and only one of the 
vessels was able to get near enough to open a fire on 
the fOrt at Red Hook, thus still more distracting the 
attention of the Americans from Clinton's advance. 

Washington, seeing that the city was in no imme- 
diate danger, crossed over to Brooklyn, and taking 
horse, galloped up to the works. 

Scarcely had he arrived, when the roar of artillery 
from Bedford gave notice that the enemy had gained 
a fatal advantage. 

No sooner were Sir Henry's guns heard, than the 
Hessians rushed forward and stormed the redoubt. 

Sullivan, seeing that he was in danger of being sur- 
rounded, ordered a retreat to the lines, but it was too 
late. He had hardly reached the plain, when he was 
met by the British infantry and dragoons, and driven 
back into the woods. Now began a scene of horrible 
slaughter. The Americans were shut in between the 
British and the Hessians. They fought with desperate 
but, alas ! with useless courage. 



THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND. 219 

The Hessians had been told that the Americans, if 
successful, would murder them all, and, under this per- 
suasion, they gave no quarter. The Highlanders were 
equally merciless. 

" Our Hessians and our brave Highlanders gave no 
quarter," wrote an officer of the British 71st, " and it 
was a fine sight to see with what alacrity they despatched 
the rebels with their bayonets, after ive had surrounded 
them, so that they could not resist.^' 

Some few of the Americans, with desperate courage, 
cut their way through, and reached the lines. The 
greater part, however, were either slain or taken pris- 
oners, and among the latter was Sullivan. 

Grant, in the meantime, had been exchanging fire 
with Stirling, waiting, like De Heister, to hear of 
Clinton's advance. 

Washington saw the danger to which Stirling's men 
were exposed, but too late to give warning. Standing 
on a hill within the lines, he saw, through his glass, 
that Cornwallis was marching down in the rear, by a 
cross-road, to place the Americans between two fires. 
Stirling's men, who had been for four hours sustaining 
the cannonade, believed that the enemy did not dare 
to advance, and were in high spirits. 

But they were soon undeceived by Clinton's cannon, 
thundering between them and the lines. Stirling 
attempted to retreat, but he was met on the swampy 
ground near Gowanus Creek by Cornwallis and his 
grenadiers, while Grant, seeing that his time was come, 
pushed forward, and at once took Colonel Atlee 
prisoner. 



220 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Stirling attacked Cornwallis fiercely, with half of 
Smallwood's brigade, thus covering the retreat of the 
other half over the swampy ground and the creek. 
These arrived in safety, drenched with mud and a\ ater, 
but bringing some prisoners and their standard, torn 
and tattered with shot, but still their ow^n. 

The fight between Stirling and Cornwallis was but 
a repetition of what had already taken place. Stir- 
ling ordered a Maryland officer to retreat, if possible, 
with a part of his remaining men, and force their way 
to the camp. This detachment fell in wdth a party of 
the enemy, who made signs that they would surrender 
as prisoners, and when they had decoyed the Ameri- 
cans within sixty yards, fired into their ranks. With 
such fierceness was this treacherous fire returned, that 
the British officer and his men who had resorted to 
such an unworthy artifice were driven back on the 
main body. 

A desperate struggle ensued. The Americans, sur- 
rounded and overwhelmed with numbers, rallied to 
the attack again and again, but all in vain. Some 
few made their escape, but the greater part were killed. 
More than two hundred and fifty men perished in this 
deadly fight, within sight of the lines. 

Washington, looking on, wrung his hands in anguish. 
"Good God!" he cried; "what brave fellows I must 
this day lose!" 

Lord Stirling had been in the fore-front of the 
battle, acting the part of a brave and good officer. 
When all hope was over, he sought out the German 



THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND . 221 

commander, De Heister, and surrendered to him his 
sword.* 

Washington,- seeing that the enemy were drawing 
their forces together, now prepared for a desperate 
defence, for the grenadiers were actually within two 
hundred yards of the redoubt. 

To his surprise, however, the English generals 
checked the advance of their victorious troops, and 
drawing them off to a hollow way, out of reach of 
musketry, encamped for the night, and the disastrous 
day was over. 

The American loss in killed, wounded and prisoners, 
Avas nearly two thousand — a large proportion, as only 
five thousand were engaged. The loss on the side of 
the British was only about three hundred and eighty. 

The defeat was partly owing to General Greene's 
absence from the ground he had thoroughly explored ; 

* Lord Stirling probably had his own reasons for choosing to 
give up to De Heister rather than to the English commander. His 
father, George Alexander, was heir to the earldom of Stirling, in 
Scotland. He was concerned in the Stuart rising in 1715, and fled 
to this country for his life. He married and settled in New York, 
and his son William Alexander was secretary to Governor Shir- 
ley. After his father's death, William Alexander attempted in 
vain to have his right to the earldom recognized. He was unsuc- 
cessful ; but though he did not recover his estate, he was com- 
monly addressed by his title. He came back to this country in 
17G1, and was a warm Whig. His grandson, W. L. Duer, in his 
*' Life of Lord Stirling," says that this very General Grant de- 
clared, in his grandfather's hearing, in the House of Commons, 
" that Americans would not fight," and that he would march 
from one end of the continent to the other with five thousand 



222 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

but the fatal error lay in neglecting to guard the 
Jamaica road, by which Clinton cut off the troops 
from their own lines and hemmed them in, to fall a 
prey to a cross-fire and the Hessian bayonets. 
Irving comments on the battle as follows : 
"This able and fatal scheme of the enemy might 
have been thwarted had the army been j)rovided with 
a few troops of light horse to serve as videttes. With 
these to scour the roads and bring intelligence, the 
night march of Sir Henry Clinton, so decisive of the 
fortunes of the day, could hardly have failed to be 
discovered and reported. The Connecticut horsemen, 
therefore, ridiculed by the Southerners for their homely 
equipments, sneered at as useless, and dismissed for 
standing on their dignity and privilege as troopers, 
might, if retained, have saved the army from being 
surprised and severed, its advance-guards routed, and 
those very Southerners cut up, captured, and almost 
annihilated. " * 

* Irving's Life of Washington, Vol. II. ch. 31. 



CHAPTER XIII 

RETREAT FROM LONG ISLAND. 

THE night after the battle was a most trying one to 
the Americans. They were worn out and dispir- 
ited, and many of them were sick or wounded. Wash- 
ington says, in his dispatch of the 29th, that his men 
had not tents to cover them, that the weather was wet 
and cold, and the soldiers almost broken down. 

Washington was up all night, and at four in the 
morning he made the rounds, speaking words of cheer 
and encouragement. 

The morning broke dark and cold. To his great 
relief, Washington saw that it was General Howe's 
intention to make regular approaches instead of storm- 
ing the works. Howe was probably ignorant of hia 
enemy's weakness, and time was given to Washington 
to carry out his plans. 

Early in the morning General Mifflin came over, 
bringing two Pennsylvania regiments, which were 
reckoned among the best in the service — Colonel Slice's 
and Colonel Magaw's. The two, however, were so 
reduced by sickness, that together they numbered only 
eight hundred men. With Mifflin also came Colonel 
Glover's five hundred men from Marblehead, a fine 
body of fishermen and sailors, dressed in a sort of naval 

(223) 



224 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

uniform of blue jackets and trousers. This regiment 
soon rendered most efficient service. The arrival of 
these troops did something to encourage the soldiers 
dispirited by the unfortunate issue of the yesterday's 
fight. 

As the day advanced, the British opened a cannon- 
ade upon the American works, and were proceeding 
with their intrenchments, when a pouring rain obliged 
them to withdraw to their tents. There were skir- 
mishes through the day, but nothing decisive took 
place, though the Americans held their own. Toward 
night, the British began to intrench themselves within 
five hundred yards of the American lines, but the 
night came down and passed, without any farther 
advance on the part of Lord Howe, though he had on 
the ground a force of twenty thousand men and more 
than forty pieces of cannon.* 

On the morning of the 29 th, a thick fog covered the 
island. In the course of the morning, General Mifflin, 
with two other officers, rode to the western outposts, 
near Red Hook. 

A light breeze blew aside the fog for a few moments, 
and it was seen that there was an unusual movement 

* The author of the " Pictorial History of the Keign of George 
the Third" complains bitterly of Lord Howe's apathy. He says 
that the troops were kept digging trenches on one side, while 
Washington was smuggling his men out on the other. The " high- 
feeding English general slept on," and " his brother, the admi- 
ral, did not move a ship or boat." 

General Howe, notwithstanding, received the honors of knight- 
Iiood from the King, the ceremony being performed by the Ger- 
man Knyphausen, Clinton and Robertson, in November, 1776. 



RETREA T FR 031 L OXG ISLAND. 225 

amoDg the enemy's fleet lying off Staten Island. Boats 
were passing to and fro from the admiral's ship, car- 
rying orders, as if the fleet was about to change its sta- 
tion. Mifflin and Reed, who formed one of the party, 
surmised that the ships were to move up and anchor 
in the East River, in which case the troops on Long 
Island would be in a perfect trap. 

The officers hurried back at full speed to the camp, 
to urge that the army should be withdrawn as soon as 
possible. Reed carried the news, and the opinion of 
himself and his companions, directly to the Commander- 
in-chief. 

A council of war was at once called, in the Old Stone 
Dutch Church.* Taking into consideration the danger 
that the troops might be cut off from the city by the 
fleet, and the difiiculty of defending lines so extensive 
with the forces at their command, against the greatly 
superior strength of the enemy, the council decided to 
abandon Long Island entirely. It was resolved that 
the army should be conveyed across that very night. 

The retreat required the greatest care and secrecy. 
Nine thousand men, with their stores and arms, were to 
withdraw from before an overwhelming and victorious 
force, encamped so near that every sound made on one 
side could be heard distinctly on the other. Moreover, 
the retiring force must embark, and cross a strait 
three-quarters of a mile wide. The least alarm would 
bring the enemy down upon the weary and harassed 
Americans. 

^ This church stood at what is now the corner of Fulton and 
Flatbush Avenues. 
15 



226 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

With swiftness and secrecy Washington made his 
preparations. Orders were sent to Colonel Hnghes, 
the quartermaster general, to impress all water craft, 
from Spyt den Duivel to Hell Gate, and have them 
ready by evening, on the east side of the city. The 
order was executed with promptness, and by eight 
o'clock that evening the little fleet was assembled, 
and put in charge of Colonel Glover and his sailor 
regiment. 

Orders were issued to the troops, as if they w^ere to 
prepare for a night attack on the British. They were 
greatly surprised, for their arms were nearly useless 
with the wet, and they themselves were almost worn 
out. Many made verbal wills, as is the custom in the 
army, entrusting to each other their last wishes. 

General Mifilin was ordered to remain in the works, 
with the remnants of Haslet's, Smallwood's and 
Hand's regiments, and the Pennsylvanians, until the 
main body should have set sail. Then he was to march 
quickly to the ferry, and embark immediately. 

It was late at night when the Americans began to 
retire from their works as quietly as possible. As one 
regiment moved away from its place, the troops at its 
right and left moved up to fill the vacancy. 

In silence and order the retreat went on. Young 
Alexander Hamilton brought up the rear. Suddenly, 
in the anxious hush, a cannon went off with a loud 
roar. Whether the gun went off* as it was spiked, or 
whether it was fired with treacherous intent, it failed 
to rouse the British. 

The embarkation began about midnight, at the foot 



RETREA T FROM L ONG ISLA ND. 227 

of Fulton Street, Brooklyn, and was conducted with 
wonderful swiftness and stillness, under the direct 
supervision of the Commander-in-chief, who stood at 
the ferry superintending every move. 

Long, indeed, must have seemed the hours of that 
wet, dark night, to Washington, as he stood there on 
the shore, while the fate of his little army hung trem- 
bling in the balance. 

He knew that his camp had been surrounded by 
Tories and spies. It was more than probable that the 
gathering of the little fleet by the quartermaster gen- 
eral had been observed and reported to the enemy, who 
might at that moment, in the darkness, be close upon 
Mifflin and his men, who Avere too few to defend the 
works. Any moment he might expect to hear the Eng- 
lish guns thundering from the heights. The brutal 
mercenaries, flushed with their victory, might pour 
down upon the ferry, and take the retreating troops at 
fatal disadvantage. 

In his eagerness to hasten the embarkation, he sent 
his aid, Colonel Scammel, to hurry the march of the 
troops already on the way. 

The Colonel made a mistake, and carried the order 
to Mifflin, who, supposing that the other regiments had 
crossed, gathered his men together, and came down to 
the ferry with all haste. 

Just then the tide had turned. There were not row 
boats enough to carry the soldiers, and the sail boats 
could not make head against the wind and the now 
opposing current. There was some confusion at the 
ferry, and at that moment Mifflin arrived, with the 



228 WASHINGTON' AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

whole of his men, adding to the embarrassment and 
the growing uproar, which, if heard in the British 
lines, would destroy everything. 

"Good God! General Mifflin!" said Washington, 
greatly alarmed ; " I fear you have ruined us by so 
unseasonably withdrawing the troops from the lines." 

" I did it by your order," said Mifflin, warmly. 

" It cannot be," said Washington. 

" I did," was the short answer. " Did Scammel act 
as aid-de-camp for the day, or did he not?" 

"He did." 

"Then I had orders through him," said Mifflin. 

" It is a dreadful mistake," said Washington, " and 
unless the troops can regain their lines before their 
absence is discovered, the most dreadful consequences 
are to be apprehended." 

Mifflin said no more. He gave his orders on the 
instant and led his troops back to the lines, which 
they regained and occupied undiscovered by the 
British. They had been left unguarded for three- 
quarters of an hour, and it seems little short of a 
miracle that, near as the British were, so large a body 
should have been able to withdraw and return to their 
posts without betraying their movements to an enemy 
whose sentries were actually within sound of voice. 

All night long the Marblehead men labored with 
sail and oar. The breeze, which had at first been 
adverse, became favorable, and the fog which still 
hung thick on Long Island cleared up on the New 
York side, enabling the boats to shape their course to 
the wharves with certainty. Troops, arms, ammuni- 



RETREAT FR03I LOXG ISLAKD. 229 

tion, horses, provisions, and all the guns but a few of 
the heaviest, were safely carried across, and, last of 
all, Mifflin and his soldiers left their posts once more, 
their retreat still unnoticed, and marching to the 
ferry, were safely embarked. The last boat brought 
over Washington, who had refused to move till all his 
army had crossed in safety. It seems unaccountable 
that these movements should have been effected with- 
out attracting the attention of the enemy. 

A Mrs. Kapelye, a lady of the Tory persuasion, dis- 
covered the embarkation, and sent her negro ser^-ant 
away in haste, with orders to tell the news to the first 
British officer he could find. The negro fell in with a 
Hessian detachment. The officer could not under- 
stand him. It is not impossible that this colored per- 
son took no particular pains to be understood. The 
Hessian officer put him. under guard. He remained a 
prisoner till daybreak, when an English office^ visiting 
the post questioned him, and was amazed at his 
story. 

The alarm was given; the troops were called to 
arms. A cautious approach was made to the Ameri- 
can lines. They were found completely deserted. 
Parties were at once hurried down to the ferry, and, 
as if some " spirit of the mist" had sympathized with 
the patriot cause, the friendly fog which had covered 
the Americans as they embarked lifted just far enough 
to show to the English and Hessians, Washington with 
the rear boats more than half way over the river. 

The British only succeeded in taking two thieves 
who had stayed behind to plunder. 



230 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Howe was extremely mortified, for he had never 
imagined that escape was possible. 

The masterly manner in which this retreat was con- 
ducted added much to Washington's military reputa- 
tion. 

In his dispatch informing Congress of events on 
Long Island, Washington says : 

"Since Monday scarce any of us have been out of 
the lines till our passage across the East Kiver was 
effected yesterday morning, and for forty-eight hours 
preceding that I had hardly been off my horse, and 
never closed my eyes, so that I was quite unfit to write 
or dictate till this morning."* 

Accessible as are the dispatches on both sides, "it is 
difficult to believe that this assertion is ignorance and 
not falsehood. 

"* The author of the History of the Eeign of George III. says 
that "Washington kept his person safe in New York." Accessi- 
ble as are the dispatches on both sides, it is difficult to believe 
that this assertion is ignorance and not falsehood. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

RETREAT FROM NEW YORK. 

THE situation of Washington and his army was now 
most critical and distressing. 

The works at Brooklyn were filled with British and 
Hessian soldiers, as were the points commanding the 
entrances to the harbor. Admiral Howe's fleet lay 
near Governor's Island, within cannon-shot of New 
York. 

On the night of Monday, September 2d, a forty-gun 
ship passed the strait between Governor's Island and 
Long Island, ran the batteries unharmed, and reach- 
ing Turtle Bay, just above the city, anchored there. 
Major Crane, however, posted artillery at the high 
bank near to what is now Forty-sixth street, and 
obliged her to run for shelter east of Blackwell's 
Island. Other vessels of war, with several transports, 
sailed around Long Island, and made their appearance 
in the upper part of the sound. 

The spirits of the army were at the lowest ebb. The 
system of depending upon militia, enlisted only for 
short terms, brought forth the usual consequences. 

" Great numbers have gone off," writes Washington 
to Congress on the 2d of September, "in some in- 

(231) 



232 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

stances by whole regiments, by half ones, and by com- 
panies at a time." 

Putting the case mildly enough, he goes on to say 
that this conduct, ojaposed as they were to a powerful 
enemy, would be " sufficiently disagreeable," but that 
their example injured the discipline of the whole 
force. 

" I am persuaded," he says, " and as fully convinced 
as I am of any one fact that has happened, that our 
liberties must be greatly hazarded if their defence is 
left to any but a permanent standing army — I mean 
one to exist during the war. Men who have been free, 
and subject to no control, cannot be reduced to order 
in an instant, and the privileges and exemptions which 
they claim, and will have, influence the conduct of 
others, and the aid derived by them is nearly counter- 
balanced by the disorder, irregularity and confusion 
that they occasion." Again and again Washington 
urged U23on Congress the necessity of enlisting men 
for longer terms, thereby obviating the trouble attend- 
ing the constant change of number in his army, the 
disorder occasioned by their return home as soon as 
they had learned the duty and discipline of soldiers, 
and also the expense and waste of the system. 

While almost driven to despair by the difficulties 
attendant on the militia system, he at the same time 
makes every allowance for the men : 

" Men just dragged from the tender scenes of domes- 
tic life, totally unacquainted with every kind of mili- 
tary skill, which is followed by a want of confidence in 
themselves when opposed to troops regularly trained, 



RETREA T FR OM NE W YORK. 233 

superior in knowledge and superior in arms, are timid, 
and ready to fly at their own shadows. Besides, the 
sudden change in their manner of liviug brings on an 
unconquerable desire to return home." 

Moreover, many of these men had left their families 
almost at a moment's warning, and knew that in their 
absence their wives and children were suffering for the 
necessaries of life ; and the soldiers from the northern 
counties dreaded every day to hear that the Indians 
had fallen upon their homes. Nor were the hard- 
working farmers and mechanics the only ones who felt 
this " unconquerable desire." The well-provided regi- 
ments from across the Delaware were in quite as great 
a hurry to go back ; and Reed speaks with bitter con- 
tempt of the Philadelphia gentlemen who came over 
" on visits, and on the first cannon-shot went off in a 
most violent hurry." 

Rumors of dissension among the rebels were rife in 
the British camp, and that British correspondent who 
has during this whole century informed his friends at 
home of the ruin of the Union was in lively spirits. 

There had been a terrible fray in New York be- 
tween the New Englanders and the other troops. The 
New Englanders had been determined to plunder the 
town and burn it, and a battle had taken place, in 
which many lives had been lost. " Mr. Washington" 
had ordered away the New York troops from the city, 
and had been minded to replace them by Connecticut 
troops, in order that he might burn the town. The 
New Yorkers, however, had mutinied, had refused 
to go, and had carried their point. Matters were 



234 WASIIFNGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

going " swimmingly/' and " this distressful business" 
was soon to be brought to a happy end. 

In spite of the self-evident fact that the militia sys- 
tem was a failure, Congress had a deep-rooted and 
very natural distrust of a standing army. It hesitated 
to place the necessary powers in Washington's hands, 
lest he should make himself a king. 

Washington, however, in all his dispatches pre- 
serves his self-control, and again and again lays the 
state of affairs before that body, in a manner which 
speaks volumes for his inexhaustible patience, perse- 
verance and devotion to the cause. 

If he spoke of his personal feelings fully to any one, 
it was to his " dearest Patsey," as he called Mrs. 
Washington ; but those letters were never read by any 
one but herself, and before her death she destroyed 
them all but the one which he wrote to her on taking , 
command of the army. 

Among other important questions which were press- 
ing upon Washington's mind, was one of the gravest 
nature. If he were forced to abandon Ncav York, 
should the town be suffered to remain as winter quar- 
ters for the enemy, or should he adopt the extreme 
measure of destroying it ? 

He laid this question before Congress, and they at 
once decided that the city in any event must be pre- 
served, as even should it fall into the hands of the 
British, no doubt was entertained of its recovery. 

Meanwhile the desertions continued, and in a few 
days the Connecticut militia was reduced from six 
thousand to two thousand. A thousand men weie 



RETREAT FROM NEW YORK. 235 

drawn from Mercer's flying camp, but the ammunition 
taken away by the departing militia was a serious 
loss. 

Washington caused all the sick and wounded to be 
removed to Orangetown, in New Jersey, and sent away 
such stores and baggage as could be spared from pre- 
sent use to Dobbs' Ferry, about twenty-two miles 
above the city. 

A fort, called Fort Constitution was begun on the 
Jersey shore, opposite Fort Washington. This was 
intended to protect on that side General Putnam's 
chevaux-de-frise, which, though it had so signally 
failed at its first trial, its inventor still trusted would 
be effectual in preventing the passage of ships up and 
down the Hudson. 

While the Americans were as yet undecided whether 
to advance or retreat. Lord Howe, who was sincerely 
desirous of peace, made advances to Congress, through 
General Sullivan, who was despatched on his parole to 
Philadelphia. His lordship said that he was desirous 
of a conference with some members of Congress. He 
could consider them only as private gentlemen, but if 
in the conference any terms of peace should be agreed 
upon, in order to render such an arrangement valid, the 
authority of Congress would be recognized. After 
much hesitation, Congress, on the 6th of September, 
chose a committee composed of John Adams, Edward 
Rutledge, and Dr. Franklin. Dr. Franklin had been 
personally acquainted with Lord Howe in England, 
and they had held many conversations on American 
affairs at the house of his lordship's sister in Loudon. 



236 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

While the committee were on their way to meet 
Lord Howe, Washington and his officers were trying 
to make a choice among the many difficulties by which 
they were surrounded. They were placed, as Reed ex- 
pressively says, " between hawk and buzzard." 

It was evident from the movements of Lord Howe's 
troops that the design of the British was to shut in 
the Americans on the island of New York, and force 
them either to fight or surrender at discretion. In the 
state of the American army, there was no hope of suc- 
cess in a pitched battle. Everything tended to show 
that the war on the side of the States should be mainly 
defensive. 

" Being fully persuaded," says Washington, " that it 
would be presumption to draw out our young troops into 
open ground against their superiors, both in numbers 
and discipline, I have never spared the spade and pick- 
axe." 

On the 7th of September, a council of war was held, 
to discuss the question of defending or evacuating the 
city. Putnam and Greene were strongly in favor of 
evacuation. Putnam urged, with truth, that the ex- 
tremities of the army were sixteen miles apart ; that it 
might easily be cut off in detail, and that by removing 
from a post which might be attacked on all sides by a 
hostile fleet, they would deprive the enemy of the great 
advantage of his ships. 

Greene argued that the city of New York was not an 
object to be compared with the safety of all America. 
He urged an immediate removal, and, moreover, was 
strongly in favor of burning the town. 




Lord Howe and Ihe Committee. 



p. %il. 



RETREAT FROM NEW YORK. 237 

Congress threw the whole responsibility upon Wash- 
ington, and, after much discussion, all the officers, with 
the exception of Heath, Spencer, and Clinton, decided 
that the evacuation of New York was a matter of 
absolute necessity. 

Meantime, the meeting between Lord Howe and the 
Congressional Committee had taken place at a house 
on Staten Island. Lord Howe treated the Commis- 
sioners with great courtesy, and offered to leave a 
British officer of distinction within the lines as a host- 
age. The Commissioners, however, declined such a 
pledge, having entire confidence in Lord Howe's good 
faith. 

As might have been expected, the conference was 
fruitless. Lord Howe could only offer pardon, if the 
colonies should return to Great Britain, and could not 
even promise redress for the oppression of which they 
had first complained.* 

The Americans maintained that they needed no par- 
don, and that the colonies, having decided for indepen- 
dence. Congress had no power, even if it possessed the 
will, to make them again into dependencies. No agree- 
ment was possible upon these terms, and the confer- 

-;•:- William Howe's acceptance of the command in America 
greatly displeased his constituents, at Nottingham, who thought 
he had broken faith with them. " You should have refused to 
go," said many of them, " and if you go, we hope you may fail." 
Howe's ideas of the Americans and their temper and their wrongs 
were strangely mistaken. "' When they find," he said, in his let- 
ter to his constituents, " that they are not supported in their fran- 
tic ideas by the more moderate, they will, from fear of punishment, 
subside to the laws." — Bigelozv's Franklin, Vol. II. p. 367. 



238 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

ence ended. Lord Howe, at parting, said, what doubt- 
less he really felt, that he should suffer great pain in 
being obliged to distress those for whom he felt so 
much regard. 

" I feel thankful to your lordship," replied Frank- 
lin, who never in his life was at a loss for an answer. 
" The Americans will endeavor to lessen the pain you 
may feel, by taking good care of themselves." 

The meeting had one good effect. Many had enter- 
tained the notion that, if Congress chose, peace might 
yet be had on honorable terms, and that Lord Howe 
had been entrusted with secret powers to adjust all dif- 
ferences on a basis of justice to the colonies. 

The conference, however, showed that Howe had no 
other terms to offer than unconditional surrender, and 
those among the patriot party who were most inclined 
to the " mother country" were convinced that no other 
course was open than to make a stand for indepen- 
dence. 

On the 13th of September, four vessels of war sailed 
up the East River, toward Hell Gate, keeping up a 
constant fire as they went, and one of the balls struck 
within six feet of Washington, as he was riding into 
the fort. It was clear that the British were trying to 
surround New York. 

" It is now a trial of skill, whether they will or 
not," wrote Reed to his wife, " and every night we lie 
down with the most anxious fears for the fate of 
to-morrow." 

On the 14th, Washington's baggage was removed to 
King's Bridge, at the head of the island, and at sunset 



RETREAT' FROM NEW YORK. 239 

of the same day two more ships passed, and joined 
those already in the sound. 

Immediately afterward, two expresses came flying 
with the ne^vs that the British were crossing, at Hell 
Gate, to the islands at the mouth of Harlem River, 
where they already had an encampment. Washington 
instantly mounted and rode to Harlem Heights, but 
the night passed without an attack. The next day, 
however, three ships of war passed up the Hudson as 
far as Bloomingdale, where they came to anchor, and 
effectually prevented the removal of stores, by water, 
to Dobbs' Ferry. 

A cannonade on the breastworks between Turtle 
Bay and the city was begun, and, under cover of the 
fire, a long procession of boats, filled with British sol- 
diers, came filing out from between the wooded banks 
of NewtoW' n Inlet, crossing the East Biver to the points 
between Turtle Bay and Kip's Bay. 

The soldiers were all standing erect, with their arms 
glittering in the sunshine, and their array was as gal- 
lant as that of the Americans was worn and tattered. 

The militia, who manned the breastworks, and two 
brigades of Putnam's troops, sent to reinforce them, 
were seized with panic, and ran away at full speed. 

At this moment the Commander-in-chief came fly- 
ing up on horseback. Rushing into the midst of the 
confusion, he tried in vain to rally the runaways, but 
the panic-terror which sometimes falls even on the 
most veteran troops had taken full possession of the 
men, and all his efforts were vain. 

At the first sight of sixty or seventy of the enemy, 



240 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

they broke ranks and fled like sheep. For once 
Washington lost control of himself. 

Overcome with wrath, grief and shame, he dashed 
his hat on the ground ; he snapped his pistols at the 
runaways, and menaced others with his drawn sword. 

" Are these the men," he cried, " with whom I am to 
defend America ?" and then, as if he were beside him- 
self, he spurred forward bare-headed, sword in hand, 
alone, against the advancing enemy. 

He was within about eighty yards of the British 
column, when one of his aids, dashing after him, caught 
his rein, and actually forced his commander off the field. 

Soon, however, Washington recovered his self-com- 
mand, and took instant measures against the pressing 
danger. The enemy could easily take possession of 
Harlem Heights, in the centre of the island, and thus 
cut off the retreat of the lower division, under Putnam, 
and divide the army. He sent orders to the forces 
above to take possession of the Heights, and des- 
patched an express to Putnam, ordering an immediate 
retreat from the city to the same position. 

Had the enemy pressed their advance, and extended 
their lines across the island, or seized upon the 
Heights, these orders could not have been carried out ; 
but, with the strange supineness which had marked 
their behavior on Long Island, they neglected their 
advantage. The main body rested on their arms, 
while only a detachment was sent down the road to 
the city leading along the East River. 

It was a moment of extreme peril. Had Washing- 
ton's orders reached a less eneigetic commander than 



RETREAT FROM NEW YORK. 241 

Putnam, the lower divisions of the army might have 
been hopelessly entrapped. The gallant " Old Put," 
as his men called him, lost not an instant. He called 
in his pickets and his guards, leaving behind great 
quantities of stores and most of the heavy cannon, 
which their was no time to remove or destroy. To 
their dismay, Putnam and Knox learned that the 
enemy occupied the east and middle roads to Harlem, 
and they knew of no other among the woods and 
swamps that then covered the upper part of the island. 
Happily, how^ever, Araon Burr, who then acted as 
Putnam's aid, knew the ground, and led the troops 
by a track through the woods to the Bloomiugdale 
road. It was a forced and hurried march. The day 
was hot, the dust rose in clouds, and they were exposed 
to the fire of the enemy's ships on the Hudson. With 
the army were women and children, and every descrip- 
tion of baggage hastily snatched up. Many were over- 
come with weariness and thirst ; some died from drink- 
ing cold water ; but there could be no pause till the 
Heights were reached. 

Putnam rode to and fro along the line, hurrying every 
one forward. Colonel Humphreys, a volunteer in the 
division, says : 

" I had frequent opportunities that day of beholding 
him, for the purpose of issuing orders and encouraging 
the troops, flying on his horse, covered with foam, 
wherever his presence was most necessary. Without 
his extraordinary exertions, the guard must have been 
inevitably lost, and it is probable that the entire corps 
would have been cut to pieces. 
16 



242 WASIIINOTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

" When we were not far from Bloomingdale, an aid 
de camp came to him at full speed, to inform him that 
a column of British infantry was descending upon our 
right. Our rear was soon fired upon, and the colonel 
of our regiment, whose order was just communicated 
for the front to file off to the left, was killed on the 
spot. With no other loss, we rejoined the army after 
dark upon the Heights of*Harlem." 

Putnam's energy might perhaps only have hurried 
the ruin of his corps, had it not been that the British 
generals, in passing Murray Hill, the residence of a 
patriotic member of the Society of Friends, stopped to 
ask for some refreshment. Mr. Murray was absent, 
but the lady of the house received them with great 
politeness, and set before them cake and wine and 
fruit in abundance. 

The British generals found their fare and their 
quarters so agreeable, that they lingered over the 
table, drinking wine and bantering Mrs. Murray about 
the utter rout of her countrymen. The lady, who 
knew how precious was every moment, kept her tem- 
per, and pressed her unwelcome guests with tempting 
refreshments, to such good purpose, that when the 
British generals at last bestirred themselves, Putnam 
and his men had passed by within a mile, escaping 
only by a few minutes from the closing of the enemy's 
line, extending from one river to the other. Putnam's 
division had been given up as lost by the army at 
Harlem. They passed a most wretched night, thus 
described by Colonel Humphreys : " Our soldiers ex- 
cessively fatigued by the sultry march of the day, 



RETREAT FROM NEW YORK. 243 

their clothes wet by a severe shower of rain that suc- 
ceeded toward the evening, their blood chilled by the 
cold wind, that produced a sudden change in the tem- 
perature of the air, and their hearts sunk within them 
by the loss of baggage, artillery, and works in which 
they had been taught to place great confidence, lay 
upon their arms, covered only by the clouds of an un- 
comfortable sky." The British army took possession 
of New York. All Whigs who could escape had left 
the city, and now all Tories who were able returned to 
it. The houses of the principal Whig gentlemen be- 
came quarters for British generals.* The churches 
were taken for barracks, for riding-schools, prisons, 
and other military purposes, those belonging to the 
Presbyterians being specially selected, as the members 
of that persuasion were supposed, and with good rea- 
son, to be particularly hostile to the king. 

The American army was now gathered within its 
fortified camp on the neck of land which forms the 
upper part of Manhattan Island. This neck of land 
is not anywhere more than a mile wide. It is a line 
of rocky hills, and is parted from the mainland by 

* Prince William Henry, afterward William the Fourth, who 
was then a little midshipman, was at the Beekman House, under 
charge of Admiral Digby. He seems to have been as careless of 
ceremony then as when, after he came to the throne, he scandal- 
ized Mr. Greville by going early to bed and " dropping" the King 
of Hanover at his hotel. Whenever he could, he would escape 
from his guardian, and play and skate with the city boys, both 
black and white, on the Collect pond, where the father of the 
poet Halleck, a decided Tory, saved his royal highness from drown- 
ing in an air hole. 



244 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Harlem river, a narrow strait which extends from Hell 
Gate, on the sound, to Spyt den Diiivel creek, an inlet 
from the Hudson. Spyt den Duivel was crossed* by 
King's Bridge, then the only passage from the island 
to the mainland. About two miles south of King's 
Bridge, and upon a rocky height, was Fort Washing- 
ton, overlooking the Hudson. Opposite to the Ameri- 
cans, about a mile and a half from their advanced 
posts, were the British lines, and between the camps 
was an open plain. 

Washington had his headquarters at the house of 
Colonel Roger Morris, who had been his companion in 
Braddock's campaign. Morris had married Washing- 
ton's youthful love. Miss Mary Philipse. Both the 
Colonel and his wife were royalists, and had withdrawn 
to the house of Beverly Robinson, in the Highlands. 
The house commands a fine view of Harlem river, the 
village. Long Island, the sound, and the plains of 
Harlem, so that from his headquarters the Commander 
could watch the movements of the enemy. 

AVashington busied his men continually in strength- 
ening the fortifications, and it was while these works 
were in progress that he first made the acquaintance of 
Alexander Hamilton, then a young captain of artillery. 

On the morning of the 14th, the most advanced post 
was attacked by a strong body of the enemy. It was 
gallantly defended by the brave Colonel Knowlton and 
his men, who, however, were finally driven in, and the 
outposts fell into the hands of the British forces — a 
battalion of light infantry, another of Highlanders, 
and three companies of Hessian riflemen. 



RETREAT FROM NEW YORK. 245 

While Reed and Washington were consulting as to 
whether succor should be sent to Knowlton's men, the 
British came into full view, and, as Reed informs us, 
" sounded their bugles in the most insulting manner, as 
is usual after a fox chase. I never felt such a sensa- 
tion before. It seemed to crown our disgrace." 

Washington's spirit was moved by the insult. He 
resolved that something should be done at all hazards 
to encourage the spirits of the troops. Three com- 
panies, under Major Leitch, were ordered to join 
Knowlton's rangers. These troops were to get in the 
rear of the enemy, while a pretended attack was 
ordered in front. 

These orders were executed, except that the enemy, 
changing their position, Knowlton and Leitch fell upon 
them in flank instead of on the rear. A hot conflict 
ensued, in which Knowlton and Leitch were both mor- 
tally wounded. Undismayed, however, Connecticut 
and Virginia fought on, side by side, drove the enemy 
into the plain, and pursued them with ardor until, thf 
retreat being sounded, they retired in good order. 

" Have we driven the enemy ?" asked Colonel 
Knowlton, with his last breath, and learning that his 
men had behaved with spirit, and put the British sol- 
diers to rout in the open field, he was satisfied. 

The British loss was somewhat greater than the 
American in numbers, but the numbers were more 
than balanced by the death of two such ofificers as 
Knowlton and Leitch. 

Trifling as was the advantage gained, it had a great 
effect on the spirits of the army. It was the first gleam 



246 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

of success in a long career of defeat and failure, and 
both the men and their commander were encouraged. 

The troops who had taken part in the struggle were 
thanked and praised in the general order, and their 
gallantry was forcibly contrasted with the behavior of 
the runaways at Kip's Bay, whom Washington seems 
to have found it very hard to forgive, and Knowlton 
and Leitch were duly honored. 

On the night of the 20th of September, a great fire 
broke out in New York, and its light was seen from 
"Washington's camp. All that night, it seemed as if 
the sky were on fire, so bright was the blaze, and in 
the morning great columns of smoke continued to rise. 
Out of the four thousand dwelling-houses which at 
that day made New York, nearly five hundred had 
been consumed. The British charged the Americans 
with the destruction of the town, but it is well known 
that the fire broke out accidentally in a low drinking 
place, near Whitehall Slip. The wind was high ; there 
were many wooden buildings, and no fire engines, so 
that it is no wonder that the fire had made great 
headway before it was finally checked by the exertions 
of the British soldiers and the sailors from the fleet. 

Several persons were seized as incendiaries, and one 
unfortunate house-carpenter. White by name, who was 
a violent Tory, and somewhat given to drink, was hung 
on a lamp-post without examination as to whether he 
were friend or foe. 

General Howe, in his dispatches, says that several 
men were caught in the act, and " killed by the en- 
raged troops ;" but it is quite possible that the soldiers 



RETREAT FRO 31 NEW YORK. 247 

may have been no better judges in other cases than 
they Avere in the ease of poor carpenter White. 

AYhile the British and American forces lay opposite 
to each other, and while the British were bringing up 
their heavy cannon, in preparation for a general 
attack with their fleet and army, there took place in 
New York one of the noblest tragedies in our history. 
Captain Nathan Hale, of Coventry, Conn., was a young 
gentleman of great j)i'oiuise, and had distinguished 
himself at Yale College, where he graduated in 1773. 
He w^as not twenty-one when, on the breaking out of 
the war, he received a commission in Knowlton's 
regiment. 

After the evacuation of Long Island, it became a 
matter of great importance to know the strength of 
the British, their movements and plans. They could 
be learned only by some one who would take his 
life in his hands, and go into the heart of the enemy's 
camp. 

Hale, learning what was required, immediately vol- 
unteered, was made known to Washington by Knowl- 
ton, and received his directions. He had an order to 
all American armed vessels to convey him wherever 
he should wish to go, and he crossed the Sound, and 
arrived at Huntington about the middle of September. 
He reached Brooklyn, took observations of i\\Q enemy's 
works, and acquired much valuable information con- 
cerning their numbers and plans. He then returned 
to Huntington. While he waited for a passage, a boat 
came ashore from a British vessel, the Cerberus, then 
lying in the Sound. Hale took the boat for one which 



248 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

lie was expecting, and it is said that on board there 
was a Tory relative of his own, who instantly pointed 
him out as a rebel. 

He was sent to Howe, at New York, and, without 
any pretence of a trial, was delivered into the hands 
of the Provost-Marshal, Cunningham, a man whose 
name is still infamous in this country, on account of 
his brutalities to our prisoners. 

It is the usage of war to put spies to death, and it 
is nothing to Howe's discredit that Hale was hung ; 
but there is no excuse for the cruelty and insult with 
which the unfortunate gentleman was treated in his 
last moments. 

He was refused the consolation allowed to the mean- 
est criminal. He asked in vain for the services of a 
clergymen. He was not even allowed to have a Bible. 
The sole indulgence allowed him was to write to his 
family. On the morning of the 21st of September, 
1776, he was hung upon an apple-tree in Rutger's 
orchard.* His last words were : " I only regret that 
I have but one life to give to my country." 

He was buried where he was put to death, and after- 
wards the Provost-Marshal destroyed the letter Hale 
had written to his mother and sisters, because he said : 
" The rebels should never know that they had a man 
in their army who could die with such firmness." 

This cruel precaution, however, was useless, for the 
Americans soon learned the story, and the nation has 
ever since honored his name, as that of a patriot and a 
martyr. 
*It was near the corner of East Broadway and Market Street. 



RETREAT FROM NEW YORK. 249 

From the Heights of Harlem, Washington wrote to 
Congress his celebrated letter of the 24th of September. 
He had again and again stated the disadvantages 
attending the system of short enlistments. Most men 
having made the same statement ten or fifteen times 
over, to a body like Congress, without effect, would 
either have given up in despair or flown into a passion. 
Washington did neither. He restates his facts, and 
brings forward his argument as clearly, as steadily, as 
calmly, as if he were referring to the matter for the 
first time ; and certainly he paints no flattering picture. 
Opposed, as he was, to an immensely su23erior force, 
the term for which numbers of his men had been en- 
gaged would soon end, most of them concluding with 
the year. Congress held out no inducement to re-en- 
list. Washington points out the injustice and the 
ill effects of paying the militia, engaged only for a 
short time, so much more than the regular troops, and 
declares that while such was the system, it could not 
be expected that men would enlist. The pay of the 
officers was not enough to support them, and they could 
not be expected to leave their families to ruin. 

He recommends that, as the war was not likely to be 
the work of a day, the army should be put upon a per- 
manent footing, and such pay given to the officers as 
would induce respectable men to enter the service. 

He says that a good bounty, and a hundred or a 
hundred and fifty acres of land, a suit of clothes and a 
blanket, should be given to each man, and adds, that at 
the time, the men could not procure decent clothes, 
much less send any help to their families. 



250 WASItmGTOF AN-D SEVENTY-SIX. 

The militia coming in only for six montlis, or for a 
less time, did not trouble themselves to obey discipline, 
and were allowed to take liberties the soldier was pun- 
ished for. 

" Trouble and jealousy were thus created, and those 
who wished order and discipline to prevail were ren- 
dered more unhappy than words could describe." 
Moreover, the constant change as the militia went and 
came threw everything into confusion. He was confi- 
dent that if the present scheme were continued the 
cause would be ruined. 

He might well say that the evils to be apprehended 
from a standing army were " remote, and, in his judg- 
ment, not at all to be dreaded," while the consequences 
of wanting a standing army were certain and inev-itable 
ruin. 

He says that the army surgeons should be as care- 
fully chosen as other officers, and bluntly declares that 
many of the surgeons are " very great rascals." The 
director-general of the hospital had no authority over 
the regimental doctors, and there was a constant dis- 
pute between them. 

The utmost punishment which could be inflicted in 
the army at that time was thirty-nine lashes, often 
given so as to be no punishment at all. The practice of 
plundering had begun to prevail to an alarming extent 
among the half- fed, half-clothed soldiers, and Washing- 
ton says that under the then regulations he " might as 
well try to move Mount Atlas" as to check the 
offenders. 

An officer had robbed a house beyond the lines of a 



RETREAT FROM NEW YORK. 251 

great number of valuables. Among other things, this 
gentleman, solely, as it would seem, to keep his hand 
in, had taken four large pier-glasses — of all things in 
the world to carry on a march ! — and a quantity of 
women's clothing. Caught in the very act by a brigade 
major and ordered to return the goods, this officer drew 
up his party, and vowed to defend his pier-glasses at 
the hazard of his life. It was with the greatest diffi- 
culty that Washington succeeded in getting this man 
cashiered. 

" It will be impossible," he says, " unless there is a 
thorough change in our military system, for me to con- 
duct matters in such a manner as to give satisfaction to 
the public, which is all the recompense I aim at or ever 
wished for." 

On the 25th of September, writing to Congress about 
the exchange of prisoners, he says, " This army is in 
want of almost every necessary — tents, camp kettles, 
blankets, and clothes of all kinds ;" and then, returning 
to the subject of short enlistments, he points out that 
" as the term of enlistment will have almost expired by 
the time the clothes can be provided, here is a fresh 
proof of the disadvantages of levying an army upon 
such a footing as never to know how to keep them 
without injuring the public, or incommoding the 
men." 

Before the letter of the 29th, however, Congress had 
been in part influenced by Washington's repeated en- 
treaties to put the army on a better footing. After 
a debate which occupied two weeks, it was resolved to 
form the army into eight battalions, to be enlisted as 



252 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY- SIX. 

soon as possible, and to serve during the war. The 
articles of war were changed, and made more strict and 
efficient. A committee of three was appointed to con- 
fer with the General, and on receipt of his letter of the 
29th, a resolution was passed that no surgeons should 
receive commissions but those who had passed examin- 
ation before a professional board, to be appointed by 
each State. 

In the meanwhile Lord Howe was using every means 
in his power to enlist the Tories or royalists, who it 
was supposed would flock with enthusiasm to the stan- 
dard of the King. To Lord Howe's great surprise, 
very little enthusiasm was forthcoming. Mr. Oliver 
De Lancey, head of a wealthy family in New York, and 
devoted to the royal cause, was commissioned to raise 
1500 men, and the people of Long Island were informed 
that if they did not volunteer for the King they would 
be drafted. Bounties were offered and rebel lands, but 
at the opening of the campaign in 1777, De Lancey 
had but 597 of the 1500 enlisted. The same ill success 
attended efforts in other States, and Howe tells us that 
little more than half the number required were raised, 
and of these only a few were Americans. 

One of the most formidable of the Tory partisans 
was Robert Rogers of New Hampshire, an adventurer 
of very doubtful character who had been arrested while 
wandering about the country. He declared that he 
was on his way to offer his services to Congress, and 
had been sent under guard to Philadelphia. There he 
was liberated after giving his ]3ledge in writing not to 
act against the Americans. He was no sooner at 



RETREAT FROM NEW YORK. 253 

liberty than lie went over to Lord Howe, who gave him 
a colonel's commission to raise a regiment, to be called 
" The Queen's Rangers." 

Loyalists of character were not likely to enlist under 
such a notorious person as Rogers, and his " Rangers" 
were made up of the very refuse of the country.* All 
through the war Rogers and his corps were objects of 
hatred. 

Washington kept up a continual watch, traversing 
all the lines himself, and occasionally crossing to the 
Jersey shore, where Greene held command. Washing- 
ton and his officers were at a loss to account for the 
slowness of Lord Howe, who could not be ignorant of 
the unfortunate state of the American army. Every 
hour they expected to see the British general prepare 
for action, and a watch was kept up over the fleet from 
all the heights, that news of its movements might be 
instantly carried. 

There was great anxiety about the safety of the 
Hudson. Under the management of Putnam, the chan- 
nel had been still more obstructed with sunken ships 
and timbers. Four galleys with heavy guns were near, 
as was also a sloop with a machine for submarine ex- 
plosion, with which Putnam hoped to blow up the ships 
of war. These defences were so commanded by bat- 
teries on shore, that it was thought no ship could pass 
them. 

Washington had meanwhile received the Commit- 

* It was a strange idea of the fitness of things which dedicated 
such a set of land pirates as Rogers' corps to that most proper 
and decorous of queens, Queen Charlotte. 



254 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

tee from Congress, and the news of the late resolutions. 
In reply, he wrote on the 4th of October an exceedingly 
strong letter. 

" Your army," he says, " is on the eve of political 
dissolution. True, you have voted a larger one in lieu 
of it, but the season is late, and there is a material dif- 
ference between voting battalions and raising men.'^ 
He points out that, according to the resolutions, the 
officers must negotiate about their commissions each 
with his own State, and mentions that some, without 
even the ceremony of asking leave, had gone home the 
moment they heard of the resolve. 

" Such," he continues, " is the distrust and jealousy 
of military power, that the Commander-in-chief has 
not an opportunity, even by recommendation, to give 
the least reward for the most essential services." 

" I ask pardon for taking up so much time with my 
opinions, but I should betray that trust which they 
and my country have reposed in me were I to be silent 
in a matter so interesting." 

This last letter produced a great impression, and its 
recommendation that the several States should send 
committees to the army to appoint officers, was adopted, 
together with other regulations for the improvement 
of the service. 

To add to the vexations which at this time harassed 
the Commander, w^as the presence of several French 
gentlemen who had received commissions. None of 
them could speak a word of English, and if they had 
been able, there were no vacancies for them. Wash- 
ington says that they were in a " most irksome situa- 



RETREAT FRO 31 NEW YORK. 255 

tion for something to do," and " seemed to be genteel, 
sensible men." One pities these "genteel, sensible 
men," with nothing to do, and unable to exchange a 
word with the people they were so anxious to serve. 
But more important matters soon claimed attention. 

Washington, as well as Putnam, had placed great 
confidence in the obstructions in the Hudson. On the 
9 th of October, at eight o'clock in the morning, three 
ships and three tenders, led by the Phoenix, came easily 
up the Hudson, and making straight for the barriers, 
Avent through them with perfect ease. The batteries 
played upon them furiously, but they passed with only 
trifling damage to the ships and the loss of nine killed 
and eighteen wounded. A schooner laden with sup- 
plies, and the sloop with the explosive machine, ran 
before them. The former was captured, the latter sent 
to the bottom with a shot. Two new ships near by 
drove ashore at Phillips' Mills, and of the four galleys 
two ran under the guns of the fort ; the other two ran 
aground just above Dobbs' Ferry. Their crews made 
their escape, and the galleys fell into possession of the 
enemy, and in their hands were likely to prove for- 
midable. 

Troops were sent immediately to prevent the land- 
ing of the British, but when they reached Dobbs' 
Ferry, they had already plundered and burned a 
store. 

These ships were a source of great distress and 
anxiety to the Americans. The retreat of the army 
from New York had produced much discontent along 
the Hudson, and the patriots had been drained away 



256 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

for the army to siicli an extent that it was feared the 
Tories would rise and overpower those who remained 
at home. 

Howe's dispatches show very plainly that the great 
body of the Tories were not inclined to enlist. The 
principal danger was that the lowest characters in the 
country made their toryism a mere pretence for rob- 
bery and murder. There were many who were in 
conscience opposed to taking up arms against the 
King, who could not bring themselves to fight against 
their own countrymen. Many of this class sold their 
property at a sacrifice, and with sad hearts withdrew to 
Canada.* The Tory element was not so formidable as 
it seemed, but Washington seems to have thought that 
HoAve's recruiting was very successful. 

The Committee of Safety, hearing that the ships 
were in the Tappan Sea, sent to Washington asking 
him to despatch troo]3S to Peekskill, "to secure the 

. * The phrase " Go to Halifax" originated at this time, as many- 
royalists settled in that town. 

First and last, the British Government distributed nearly fif- 
teen millions of dollars in pensions and claims among the loyal- 
ists. Sabine's estimate, that twenty thousand took up arms for 
the king, seems extravagant, in the light of Howe's dispatches. 
West painted an allegorical picture of the reception of the Tories 
in England, in which, according to the taste of the time, Religion, 
Justice, the Genii of America and Britain, Indians, negroes, men, 
women and children, together with Mr. and Mrs. West, in a very 
conspicuous position near the royal crown, on a table, are all 
covering or being covered with the expanded mantle of Britannia, 
represented by a large lady sitting in the air, on nothing in par- 
ticular. It was found after George the Third's death that he 
had ke])t an accurate list of the American loyalists, with all the 
particulars he could gather about each individual. 



RETREAT FROM NEW YORK. 257 

passes, prevent insurrection, and overawe the dis- 
affected." 

Washington sent off the Massachusetts militia, under 
Lincoln, as a fit force to deal with the Tories, who 
were thought to be on the eve of rising, and Colonel 
Tash, with a New Hampshire regiment, was sent to be 
at the order of the Committee of Safety, then sitting at 
Fishkill. Brigadier-General Clinton was ordered to 
have all passing boats searched and their owners 
examined, and Litchfield and Fairfield counties, in 
Connecticut, held their militia ready to put down in- 
surrection in ISi ew York. 

To all who knew the state of the country, affairs 
seemed almost desperate, and in a letter to Morris, 
Edward Rutledge seriously advocated the policy of 
desolating the whole country below the Highlands, 
and withdrawing the army to the hills. 

On the 11th, the American cause very nearly sus- 
tained a greater misfortune than the arrival of the 
enemy's ships in the Hudson. 

A small vessel seen from Fort Washington was 
taken for one of the British tenders, and was fired at 
from a twelve-pounder and struck. It was Washing- 
ton's own yacht, and the captain and three men were 
killed. 



CHAPTER XV. 

BATTLE OF WHITE PLAINS. — BATTLE ON LAKE 
CHAMPLAIN. 

WHILE the American forces were falling back before 
the British, and De Lancey and Rogers were strain- 
ing every nerve to enlist the Tories, while Washington, 
beset on all sides, was holding his army together with 
the utmost difficulty, there was one man whose arrival 
soldiers and citizens were eagerly expecting. This was 
General Lee, who was the popular idol of the time. 
" General Lee," wrote an American officer from New 
York, " is hourly expected, as if from heaven with a 
legion of flaming swordsmen." 

Lee's successes at the South, his dashing enterprises, 
were contrasted with Washington's retreat from LoDg 
Island and the evacuation of New York. The wisdom 
and generalship by which the Commander and his 
officers had saved the army from utter ruin, in the 
face of a greatly superior and victorious enemy, were 
not likely to be appreciated by the many who look only 
to immediate success, without weighing difficulties or 
comparing circumstances. 

Washington himself had a high idea of Lee's mili- 
tary genius, and was anxious for his arrival. Lee 
reached Amboy on the 12th of October, and thence 
(258) 




During llie niglit, the bridge was torn up. 



BATTLE OF WHITE PLAINS. 25 J 

wrote to Congress that he was confident Howe had no 
idea of attackino; Washington. He was certain that 
Howe's object was Philadelphia, and he begged Con- 
gress " for Heaven's sake to arouse itself." He (Lee) 
was going to headquarters, and meant to urge Wash- 
ington to " spare a part of his army, if he had any to 
spare," for the purpose of defending the city. 

Unhappily for Lee's reputation as a prophet, on the 
very morning on which this letter was written, the 
British were landing at Throg's Point,"^' on the Sound, 
nine miles from the American camp. Throg's Point 
extended two miles into the Sound, was parted from 
the mainland by a little creek and a marsh, and every 
high tide converted it into an island. A ruined cause- 
w^ay, and a bridge over the creek, joined it with the 
continent, and at low water the upper end of the 
creek was fordable. 

Four thousand men were pushed forward to secure 
this causeway, but General Heath had placed there 
Hand's riflemen, who kept them at bay, and when 
reinforced by Prescott's Massachusetts regiment, and a 
three-pounder, forced the British to seek the ford at 
the head of the creek. Here they were met by Colonel 
Graham's New Yorkers and a six-pounder. Again 
they were brought to a stand, and when Washington 
came on the ground, a scattering fire only was kept 
up across the morass. During the night, the bridge 
was torn up, and the British troops were thus left on 
an island. 

* This place is called Throg's Neck, Throg's Point, Frog's Neck, 
and Frog's Point, and sometimes Throck's Neck, etc. 



260 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

The British and Americans both threw up works on 
Throg's Point. For six whole days Howe remained 
inactive on this peninsula, waiting for supplies and 
reinforcements, though he had a large force already at 
his command, and must have known the condition of 
the American army. 

On the 14th, General Lee arrived in camp. Wash- 
ington was absent from headquarters, visiting the posts 
about King's Bridge. Lee rode out and joined him, 
and met with a cordial welcome. Washington gave 
him the command of the larger part of the army — the 
troops about King's Bridge. 

Lee, at no time wanting in self-confidence, was elated 
by his successes in the South, and much disposed to 
find fault with others. In a letter to Gates, he cen- 
sures Washington's disposition of the army. He finds 
fault with him for submitting to the dictation of Con- 
gress. " Inter nos,'' he writes, " the Congress seem to 
stumble at every step. I do not mean one or two of 
the cattle, but the whole stable. I have been very 
free in delivering my opinion to them. In my opinion. 
General Washington is much to blame in not menacing 
them with resignation, unless they refrain from un- 
hinging the army by their absurd interference." 

Washington, however, was not a man to add to the 
perplexities of the time by any such menace. His 
anxiety was for the cause and the country, not for him- 
self. He knew that, to impress facts upon the minds 
of those who cannot see the state of a case with their 
own eyes, needs line upon line, and precept upon pre- 
cept, and he bore up against vexations and hindrances 



BATTLE OF WHITE PLAINS, 261 

with a perseverance and patience which was truly 
heroic and Christian. 

Congress, hearing of the arrival of the enemy's 
ships in the Hudson, passed resolutions, desiring Wash- 
ington, if possible, to shut up the navigation of the 
Hudson at any expense, and so prevent the vessels 
already in the river from coming out or receiving help. 

Washington called a council of war at Lee's head- 
quarters, to consider the question of awaiting the 
attack where they then were, or of abandoning entirely 
Manhattan Island. All the major-generals were pre- 
sent but Greene, all the brigadiers, and Knox, who 
commanded the artillery. 

It was urged that their position was well-fortified, 
and difficult of access ; but Lee laughed at the idea of 
holding the island. The only pass to the mainland 
was at King's Bridge. The enemy had ships on both 
sides, and could hem them in, front and rear. " For 
my part," he said, " I would have nothing to do with 
the islands to which you have been clinging so per- 
tinaciously. I would give Mr. Howe the fee sim^ole of 
them." With only one dissenting voice — General 
Clinton's — all agreed that it was not possible to pre- 
vent the communication from being cut off, in which 
case the Americans must fight at disadvantage or sur- 
render at discretion. Owing to the resolve of Con- 
gress, it was decided, against Washington's own judg- 
mentj to retain Fort Washington as long as possible. 
It was strongly garrisoned with some of the best troops 
in the service, under Colonel Magaw, who was charged 
to "defend it to the last extremity." 



262 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

The name of the post opposite, on the Jersey shore, 
was changed from Fort Constitution to Fort Lee, and 
it was hoped that the batteries of these two posts 
would prevent the passage of the ships, although they 
had already proved quite ineffectual. 

The army was divided into four bodies, assigned to 
the command of Lee, Heath, Sullivan and Lincoln. 
Lee was placed opposite to King's Bridge on Valentine's 
Hill, to protect the transportation of baggage and 
military stores from the island, and the other divisions 
in fortified posts extending along the hills of the Bronx 
from Lee's camp to White Plains. Washington, as 
usual, was the last in the retreat, and during this time 
he was continually in the saddle surveying the coun- 
try, and choosing sites for his works. He disposed his 
army with great skill, so that it was protected entirely 
by the Bronx, a narrow but deep stream, bordered by 
trees. His troops faced and also flanked the enemy, 
while at the same time they protected the roads 
through which the stores and baggage were to be trans- 
ported. On the 23d the Commander-in-chief took up 
his quarters at White Plains with his troops. 

General Howe on the 18th had crossed from Throg's 
Point on boats, and being joined by the main body, 
marched from Pell's Point to New Rochelle, meaniug 
to get above Washington's army. On their advance 
the British were greatly harassed by Glover's "am- 
phibious regiment," who were as much at home with 
rifles as with oar and sail. With them were Reed's 
and Shepard's infantry. The Americans drove the 
British advance guard back twice, and then re- 



BATTLE OF WHITE PLAINS. 263 

treated on the main body with small loss. The officers 
and troops were joublicly thanked by Washington. 

General Howe encamped at New Rochelle, his lines 
extending to Mamaroneck, on the Sound. Here was 
posted Rogers, the renegade, with his " Queen's 
Rangers." 

Lord Stirling sent out Colonel Haslet with 750 
Delaware men, to surprise, if possible, the Tory camp. 
Haslet crossed the British lines and came down upon 
the Queen's Rangers undiscovered. Several of the 
Tories were killed, and others taken prisoners, but 
Rogers himself slipped away at the first fire. Sixty 
stand of arms, the colors of the Rangers, and other 
spoils, were taken, and Haslet returned in safety and 
with no loss. 

This skirmish, and some others in which the Ameri- 
cans were successful, inspirited the troops, and gave 
them steadiness and confidence. 

While thus facing the Americans, Howe was joined 
by Knyphausen's division of Hessians, a regiment of 
AYaldeckers, and by the Seventeenth Light Dragoons, 
and a portion of the Sixteenth, just from Ireland. 
They brought some of their horses from over sea, and 
procured others in the country. The formidable ap- 
pearance of these troopers at first made them objects 
of great dread to the Americans, more especially to the 
militia. 

Washington took great pains to convince his men 
that the dragoons were more terrible in appearance 
than in reality In a rough country like that they 
then occupied, full of trees, rocks and water-courses. 



264 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

and marked off by stone walls, the horsemen were 
really at great disadvantage opposed to the American 
riflemen, who could pick them off in detail. He also 
proclaimed that a reward of one hundred dollars would 
be paid for every dragoon brought in with his horse 
and equipments. On the 27th an attack was made on 
Fort Washington by two ships, at the same time that 
Lord Percy fell upon the lines. Both the soldiers and 
the ships were beaten back, the latter sustaining great 
damage. 

While these movements were going on, Lee, with his 
men and a train of wagons four miles long, was travel- 
ing all night over the rough road to the camp, which, 
happily, he reached in safety. 

Opposite to the height on which the camp was 
pitched was a rocky eminence, called Chatterton's 
Hill, which partially commanded the right flank. 
Here a militia regiment was stationed. 

On the morning of the 28th, Washington, with Lee 
and other officers, rode out to survey a hill which 
seemed to ofler a better position, when a trooper came 
galloping up to tell him that the British were in the 
camp. 

"Then, gentlemen," said the Commander-in-chief, 
"we have other business to attend to than reconnoiter- 
ing." Putting his horse to full speed, and followed 
by his staff, he reached the camp to learn that the 
pickets had been driven in, that the enemy were ad- 
vancing, and that the Americans were posted in order 
of battle. 

"Gentlemen, said Washington to his generals, 



BATTLE OF WHITE PLAINS. 265 

" you will return to your respective posts, and do the 
best you can." 

The militia on Chatterton's Hill were reinforced by 
some more experienced troops, but the whole force 
posted there did not exceed sixteen hundred men. 
This had scarcely been done, when the British and 
Hessians, under Clinton and De Heister, appeared, 
accompanied by a troop of the dreaded dragoons. As 
they came glittering in all the " pomp of ordered war" 
out upon the high ground above White Plains, they 
presented a formidable spectacle. Howe halted for a 
while, and his men began throwing up intrenchments 
on the left. Their right wing reached to the American 
lines, and these two wings and the centre were almost 
a semicircle. Their intention was evidently to get in 
the rear of the American camp. 

The day passed without any attack, and Washington 
seized the interval to remove the sick and wounded, 
and all the stores that could be spared, from his 
camp. 

The two forces lay within cannon-shot of each other. 
The night was dark and chilly, and both armies kin- 
dled fires all over the hills. " These fires," says Gen. 
Heath, " some on the level ground, some at the foot of 
the hills, and at all distances to their browns, some of 
which were lofty, seemed to the eye to mix wdth the 
stars." 

Washington spent the night in drawing back his 
right wing to stronger ground, and strengthening his 
works by additions. These additions, very formidable 
in appearance, were made of corn-stalks, pulled up 



266 WASHINGTON AND SEVEVTY-SIX. 

from a neighboring field, with as much earth as pos- 
sible about their roots. The roots were placed out- 
ward, the tops inward, and the whole was filled up 
with loose earth or whatever came to hand. These 
barriers were erected with great rapidity, and in the 
morning Howe, discouraged by their apparent strength, 
instead of making a direct assault, prepared to throw 
up lines as if for a cannonade, his forces meanwhile 
endeavoring to get around the Americans in flank and 
rear. 

In order to prevent his communication with the 
upper country from being cut off", Washington sent a 
detachment to hold Pine's Bridge, over the Croton, 
being most anxious to convey his exhausted men where 
they would have time to recruit their strength. 

Never, probably, was a regular, well-found, and 
superior army held at bay by such an assembly as 
were the Americans at that time. 

" I believe no nation ever saw such a set of tatter- 
demalions," writes a British officer. " There are few 
coats among them but what are out at elbows, and in 
a whole regiment there is scarce a pair of breeches. 
Judge, then, how they must be pinched by a winter's 
campaign. We, who are warmly clothed and well 
equipped, already feel it severely." 

Well might one of Washington's aids say, " If we 
with our motley army can keep Mr. Howe and his 
grand appointment at bay, I think we shall make no 
contemptible military figure." 

General George Clinton, who looked with very dis- 
approving eyes on the retreating policy, and had been 



BATTLE OF WHITE PLAINS. 267 

anxious to meet the British in the open field, feared 
that fatigue and cold would destroy the army 
without fighting. "However," adds the General, 
"I would not be understood to condemn measures. 
They may be right for aught I know." In another 
letter he says: "Pray let Mrs. Clinton know that 
I am well, and that she need not be uneasy about 
me. It would be too much honor to die in so good 
a cause." The sentiment does the General credit, but 
it may be doubted whether it relieved Mrs. Clinton's 
anxiety. 

On the night of the 31st, Washington made another 
move. He set fire to some stores and forage that 
could not be carried away ; he left a strong guard on 
the heights and in the woods, and withdrew his main 
army five miles to the rocks and hills of Northcastle. 
There he again set to work at intrenchments, fighting, 
as he said, " with the spade and pickaxe." 

Howe made no attack upon the new camp, and a 
violent rain coming on, the British forces lay inactive 
till the 4th of November, when they broke up, and 
moved off along the road leading to Dobbs' Ferry. 

On the night of November 5th, the court-house and 
some other buildings belonging to the village of White 
Plains were burned. It was the act of some drunken 
persons, but has been charged upon Washington by 
the English. It was severely censured by him in the 
general order for next day, in which he calls the per- 
petrators " base and cowardly wretches," and assures 
the army that they shall " meet with the punishment 
they deserve." 



268 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

It was very doubtful whether it was Howe's inten- 
tion to invade New Jersey on his way to Philadelphia, 
or to lay siege to Fort Washington. 

Washington wrote to the Governor of New Jersey, 
urging him to have the militia in readiness. He also 
recommended that the people near the coast should 
remove all their stock, grain, forage and other pro- 
perty to the interior as soon as possible, otherwise, he 
said, they would suffer terribly, as the distinction be- 
tween Whig and Tory was lost " in one general scene 
of ravage and desolation." 

Howe did not long leave the Americans in doubt as 
to his intentions. On the day of the battle at White 
Plains, Knyphausen, with his Hessians, had taken up 
a position between Fort Washington and King's 
Bridge. Once more the obstructions in the river 
proved useless, and a frigate, with two transports, 
sailed past the forts quite unhurt. Washington's own 
opinion was that it was not advisible to hold the fort, 
since, as it had proved useless to close the river against 
the English vessels, there was no advantage in hazard- 
ing men and arms in its defence. 

General Greene, however, and Colonel Magaw, the 
commander, were for retaining the post at all risks, 
and believed that, even should it prove untenable, the 
men and stores could be removed in time. Congress 
had laid great stress on retaining Fort Washington, 
and though they had nominally left the decision to 
Washington, he knew that to abandon it would create 
great displeasure in Philadelphia, and hinder him 
from receiving power to carry out those reforms in the 



BATTLE OF WHITE PLAINS. 269 

army upon which, more than on anything else, de- 
pended the safety of the cause. He suffered his judg- 
ment to be overruled, and the garrison was left in the 
fort. 

A new disposition of the army was made. The 
troops from west of the Hudson were to be sent into 
New Jersey, and the division under Lord Stirling was 
already on its way. Connecticut, Massachusetts and 
JSTew York militia were to be left with Clinton, to 
secure the posts in the Highlands. Heath, with his 
division, was to cooperate with Clinton. 

The troops to remain at Northcastle were left under 
the command of Lee. Washington's letter of instruc- 
tions to Lee is written with his usual modesty. It 
shows that he had great confidence in Lee — a confi- 
dence on this occasion not a little misplaced. 

Much was left to his discretion. The post at Croton 
Bridge was especially recommended to his care. " If 
the enemy," writes AYashington, " should remove the 
whole or the greater part of their forces to the west 
side of the Hudson River, I have no doubt of your 
following with all possible dispatch." 

On the 10th of November, Washington left North- 
castle at eleven o'clock in the morning, and by sunset 
reached Peekskill. Heath's division was there, and 
also Lord Stirling, who had, however, sent his men 
across the river. 

The great defile of the Hudson w^as an object of 
much anxiety to Washington and his generals, and 
the next day Avas spent in visiting and choosing sites 
for the various works which were to be erected. West 



270 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Point, the site selected by Lord Stirling, was chosen 
for a fortress, which was thought to be the key to the 
Highlands. On the same day he wrote to Lee, enclos- 
ing the resolutions of Congress concerning the addi- 
tions to the army, and urging the necessity of begin- 
ning immediately to recruit, and he again pressed the 
removal of the stores above Croton Bridge. 

Heath was left in command of the Highlands at 
Peekskill. He was a man devoted to the cause, and a 
brave and faithful officer. 

While he was at Peekskill, Washington had the 
pleasure of receiving good news from that division of 
the northern army which, under the command of 
Gates, was acting on Lake Champlain. Sir Guy 
Carleton had been making every effi)rt to get possession 
of Lake Champlain and Lake George. Should he 
succeed, all northern New York would be in his 
power, and before winter came, he might take Albany, 
cooperate with Howe, cut off the American forces 
north and south from each other, and bring the war to 
a close. 

With all he could do, however, it was three months 
before his flotilla was ready, though the soldiers 
divided the labor with the sailors, and the Canadian 
farmers were pressed into the service, and employed in 
dragging the boats overland or up the Sorel Rapids. 
When October came, twenty or thirty vessels, well 
armed and manned, were ready for action. The flag- 
ship mounted eighteen twelve-pounders, and the other 
vessels were armed in proportion. One floating bat- 
tery, called the Thunderer, carried six twenty-four 



BATTLE OF WHITE PLAINS. 271 

and twelve six-pounders, besides howitzers. Seven 
hundred seamen manned this fleet, which in all points 
was admirably equipped. 

Sir Guy's plan required that he should cut his way 
through Lake Champlain, take Crown Point and Ticon- 
deroga, pass Lake George, and make a rough and 
dangerous march through woods and swamps to 
Albany, in which city he expected to find winter 
quarters. 

The American naval force on the Lake was under 
the command of Arnold. Every sort of difficulty had 
beset its construction, and when finished, it was a piti- 
ful array to oppose to Sir Guy's numerous and well- 
appointed flotilla. 

The two forces met near Valcour's Island, and a hot 
action ensued. The British commander, who was 
accompanied by a horde of Indians, landed his savages 
on the island, to maintain a rifle-fire on the Ameri- 
cans. This measure did not prove as destructive as 
he had hoped ; but the wild shrieks and yells of the 
savages, added to the uproar of the battle and the 
heavy cannon, were horrible in the extreme. Instead 
of dismaying the Americans, the fire from the island 
and the yells of the savages seemed only to add to 
their rage, and finding themselves hemmed in, they 
fought with fierce desperation. Arnold drove his 
galley, the Congress, into the hottest of the fight. He 
cheered on his men, he pointed his guns with his own 
hand. It seemed as though he bore a charmed life, for 
though in the midst of a hot cannonade and musket- 
fire, he was not even touched. 



272 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

In spite of the tremendous odds against the Ameri- 
cans, the battle was yet undecided when night came 
down. The British squadron was drawn off, and 
anchored near Arnold's little fleet. Sir Guy thinking 
that in the morning he should be able to capture the 
whole. 

Arnold, however, took advantage of a north wind 
and a dark night. Every one of his vessels slipped 
through the enemy's line unseen and unheard, and by 
daylight, to the amazement of the British, they were 
nowhere to be seen. The pursuit was at once begun, 
and not far from Schuyler's Island they saw Arnold's 
galley, that of General Waterbury, and four gondolas. 
All these vessels, having been much injured the day 
before, had dropped behind the others, which were 
nearly out of sight. 

There was an anxious race. The wind was adverse. 
General Waterbury, on the Washington^ was overtaken 
by three vessels and exposed to a tremendous fire, and, 
already much crippled, was obliged to surrender. 

The Congress and the little gondolas, however, 
fought until they were mere wrecks. Arnold was 
resolved that neither men nor ships should fall intc 
British hands. The gondolas were run ashore and 
set on fire. Their crews waded to land, and kept off 
the enemy with rifles till the boats were consumed. 
Arnold followed the same course with the Congress, 
and stayed on board till the flames had half destroyed 
her. His flag was kept flying to the last. He and his 
men carrying the wounded, made their way by a rough 
road to Crown Point, where they destroyed everything 








Carrying the wounded to Crown Point. p. 272 



BATTLE OF WHITE PLATXS. 273 

they could not carry, and taking the vessels that had 
escaped, sailed for Ticonderoga. 

This affair added much to Arnold's already high 
reputation. 

Sir Guy Carleton occupied Crown Point, and made 
several attempts to attack Ticonderoga. Gates, how- 
ever, presented such an obstinate front, that Sir Guy 
became discouraged. Winter was upon him, and even 
if Ticonderoga were taken, it could only be with losses 
that would seriously embarrass further operations. 
The way to Albany was long, cold and rough, and by 
the 1st of November he abandoned Crown Point, and 
with all his vessels and his horde of savages returned 
to his comfortable quarters in Canada. 

Such was the new^s which Washington heard at 
Peekskill, and which he must have heard with great 
satisfaction, as it relieved him of all anxiety for the 
winter, so far as concerned the northern provinces and 
the northern army. 



IS 



CHAPTER XVI. 

LOSS OF FORT WASHINGTON. — RETREAT TO NEW 
JERSEY. 

ON the morning of the 12th of November, Washing- 
ton crossed the Hudson near Stony Point. Below 
him, in the broad waters of the Tappan Sea and 
Haverstraw Bay, the Phoenix, Rose and Tartar lay at 
anchor, to guard the lower ferries. The army under 
Lord Stirling, thus shut out from the nearer passes, 
was taking a roundabout road over the hills. The 
troops which had just crossed were ordered to proceed 
by the same path to Hackensack, while Washington 
and Reed took a direct road to Fort Lee, as they were 
both in great anxiety about Fort Washington. 

They reached there the next day, but, to his dis- 
appointment, Washington found that General Greene, 
instead of ordering Magaw and his men to retreat, had 
reinforced the garrison, so that it now amounted to 
over two thousand men. 

The fort had been invested on all sides but one, but 
still Magaw was sure that it could be defended. On 
the night of the 14th a number of flat-bottomed boats 
made their way into Harlem river, providing means 
for landing troops before the weakest part of the 
American lines, and on the 15th, Howe sent in a sum- 
mons to surrender, threatening to put all to the sword 
(274) 



LOSS OF FORT WASHINGTON. 275 

if the place were carried by assault. Magaw replied 
that he could hardly think Lord Howe would execute 
such a threat, but that at all events he should defend 
the post " to the very last extremity." 

General Greene sent over more men, and despatched 
an express to AVashington, who had in the meantime 
gone back to Hackensack, five miles distant, where 
the weary troops from Peekskill were encamped. 

Washington reached Fort Lee at nightfall. Greene 
and Putnam had gone over to the besieged fort. 
Washington hurried into a boat, and was half across 
the river when he met the two generals returning. 
They assured him that the garrison were in a state to 
make a good defence. Not wishing that the Com- 
mander-in-chief should venture within the walls of the 
beset fort, Greene and Putnum with great difficulty 
persuaded Washington to return to Fort Lee. He was 
extremely excited and anxious. 

Magaw's forces were now nearly three thousand 
men, and included some of the finest troops in the 
service. Most of them were stationed at the outworks, 
for the fort would not hold them. Lord Howe had 
planned four attacks, to take place at once, and at 
noon the cannonade began. 

The men at the outworks fought fiercely, and their 
rifles told severely upon the enemy. From repeated 
firing, however, their pieces became foul, and Colonel 
Cadwalader, who was posted on the outer lines, being 
attacked on two sides, was obliged to retreat to the 
fort. He was hotly pursued by Lord Percy and the 
Hessians, who, as usual, showed no quarter. The 



276 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Americans turned again and again on their pursuers, 
and marked their path by the number of slain. 

On the other side the same resistance, and equally 
in vain, was offered by Rawlings, who kept Knyp- 
hausen at bay until he was reinforced by Rahl. 

Rawlings retreated to the fort, and Knyphausen, 
posting his men behind a large stone house, sum- 
moned the fort to surrender. 

Washington, at Fort Lee, watched the action 
through his glass. When he saw Cadwalader's troops 
driven in, and his men bayoneted by the Hessians, 
while asking in vain for quarter, those who were with 
him say that " he wept with the tenderness of a child." 
Doubtless it was bitter to him to think that he had 
suffered himself to be overruled ; and he took upon 
himself the responsibility of the disaster. 

He wrote a note to Magaw saying that if he could 
hold out till evening, an endeavor would be made to 
bring off the garrison in the night. 

Captain Gooch, of Boston, carried this note over the 
river in the face of the enemy. " He ran up to the 
fort, delivered the message, came out, ran and jumped 
over the broken ground, dodging the Hessians, some 
of whom struck at him with their pieces, while others 
attempted to thrust him with their bayonets. Escap- 
ing through them, he got to his boat, and returned to 
Fort Lee." 

The captain's bravery, however, was useless to save 
the garrison. Magaw was beset on all sides. Every- 
where the British could pour in shot and shell, and his 
men were so crowded together that they could not act. 



LOSS OF FORT WASHINGTON. 277 

He surrendered himself and his garrison prisoners of 
war. The men were allowed to retain their baggage 
and the officers their side-arms. 

As soon as the British flag was seen to go up over 
the lost fort, Washington turned his mind to the de- 
fence of the upper country. He wrote instantly to 
Lee, informing him of the surrender, urging upon him 
the defence of the upper passes, but leaving it to his 
discretion whether or not to retreat. 

Lee thought his position at Northcastle was suffi- 
cien»tly safe, and averred that he could retreat at any 
moment. In regard to the loss of the fort, he only 
observed, " Oh, General ! why would you be over-per- 
suaded by men of inferior judgment to your own ? It 
was a cursed aflair !" 

Over-modesty and a too great regard for the opin- 
ions of others were not faults for which Lee was likely 
to make much allowance. 

Washington's letters to his brother at this time are 
full of trouble and discouragement. " If I had spoken 
with a prophetic spirit," he says, " I could not have 
foretold the evils with more accuracy than I did. All 
the year I have been pressing Congress to lose no time 
in engaging men upon such terms as would ensure 
success, telling them that the longer it was delayed, 
the more difficult it would prove. But the measure 
was not commenced till it was too late to be effected, 
and then in such a manner as to bid adieu to every 
hope of getting an army from which any services are 
to be expected — the different States, without any re- 
gard to the qualifications of an officer, quarreling 



278 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

about the appointments, and nominating such as are 
not fit to he shoe-blacks,^ from the local attachments of 
this or that member of Assembly. I am wearied 
almost to death with the retrograde motion of things, 
and I solemnly protest that a pecuniary reward of 
twenty thousand pounds a year would not induce me 
to undergo what I do, and after all, perhaps to lose my 
character, as it is impossible, under such a variety of 
distressing circumstances, to conduct matters agreeably 
to public expectation." 

The capture of Fort Washington made Fort Lee 
useless, and orders were at once given to remove 
troops, baggage and stores. It was, however, too 
late. 

On the 15th of November, a British force of six 
thousand, under Lord Cornwallis, crossed the river 
and landed at Closter Dock, five miles above the fort. 
An express was instantly sent to Washington, then at 
Hackensack with the main army. The enemy were 
extending their lines to hem in the garrison between 
the Hudson and the Hackensack, and cut them off 
from the rest of the troops. Nothing but an instant 
retreat could secure the bridge over the Hackensack. 
There were no horses and wagons on hand, and a great 
amount of tents and stores were left behind, and all 
the artillery but two twelve-pounders. Such was the 
haste, that even the camp-kettles were left over the 
fires. Rapid as was the retreat of the Americans, 
when they reached the Hackensack River, the enemy 

* Probably the gentleman who stole the pier-glasses was one of 
this class. 



LOSS OF FORT WASHINGTON. 279 

was close upon them. They crossed where they could, 
and Cornwallis made no effort to prevent them. 

Washington at once sent orders to Lee to remove 
his troops to the west side of the Hudson, and wait 
further commands. The next day he himself wrote to 
Lee in a more urgent strain ; he also wrote to Gover- 
nor Livingston, of New Jersey, to raise the militia and 
oppose the progress of the enemy. Lee's course 
at this time of distress added much to Washington's 
perplexities. He coolly took his own way, regardless 
of the repeated orders of the Commander-in-chief. He 
had plans of his own which he was resolved to carry 
out, and while he was acting in defiance of all military 
discipline, lamented openly " the indecision" of Wash- 
ington. Even Reed, Washington's most trusted and 
beloved friend, wrote to Lee in terms of what was cer- 
tainly most extravagant eulogy, and spoke of Wash- 
ington in a way which does no honor to his (Reed's) 
character either as a soldier or a gentleman. 

" I do not mean to flatter or praise you at the ex- 
pense of any other," he says, " but I do think that it 
is entirely owing to you that this army, and the liber- 
ties of America, so far as they are dependent on it, are 
not entirely cut off. You have decision, — a quality 
often wanting in minds otherwise valuable, — and I 
ascribe to this our escape from York Island, King's 
Bridge, and the Plains ; and I have no doubt had you 
been here, the garrison of Fort Washington would 
now have composed a part of our army ; and from all 
these circumstances, I confess I do ardently wish to 
see you removed from a place where there will be so 



280 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

little call for your judgment and experience, to the 
place where they are likely to be so necessary. Nor 
am I singular in my opinion. The gentlemen of the 
family, the officers and soldiers generally, have a con- 
fidence in you. The enemy constantly inquire where 
you are, and seem to have less confidence when you 
are present." 

Then he continues concerning the loss of Fort 
Washington : 

" General Washington's own judgment, seconded by 
representations from us, would, I believe, have saved 
the men and their arms; but, unluckily. General 
Greene's judgment was contrary. This kept the Gen- 
eral's mind in a state of suspense till the blow was 
struck. Oh, General ! an undecisive mind is one of 
the greatest misfortunes that can befall an army ! 
How often have I lamented it in this campaign ! All 
circumstances considered, we are in a very awful and 
alarming situation, one that requires the utmost wisdom 
and firmness of mind. As soon as the season will ad- 
mit, I think yourself and some others should go to Con- 
gress and form the j^lan of a new army. I must con- 
clude with my clear and explicit opinion that your 
presence is of the last importance." 

To fully appreciate this letter, we must remember 
that this presentment of Washington as a well inten- 
tioned but irresolute person, whose " undecisive mind" 
needs the support of some bolder nature, is made by 
a staff-offier writing of his commander, and by one 
whom that commander loved and trusted with his 
whole heart. The suggestion that Lee and others were 



LOSS OF FORT WASHINGTON. 281 

to tender their advice to Congress concerning the new 
army without reference to Washington's plans is a sin- 
gular one, and had Washington known it, it could not 
have failed justly and deeply to hurt and offend him. 
This letter was written on the 21st of November. • 
The army at Hackensack was only about three 
thousand men, and would soon be reduced by the ex- 
piration of terras of enlistment. They had lost tents, 
stores and baggage, and were almost without clothes, 
shoes or blankets to cover them. They were in a flat 
country, and their intrenching tools were gone. The 
enemy with their ships could land troops where they 
pleased. 

Reed was sent to Governor Livingston to hasten the 
New Jersey militia; Mifllin to Philadelphia to urge 
Congress to take immediate measures to raise men. 
Still, however, Washington looked for Lee's arrival in 
vain, but on the 24th came a letter from that general 
to Reed. Washington opened it, as he did all ofiicial 
letters. Lee had not yet moved from Northcastle. 
Dobbs' Ferry was blocked, and the way round by 
King's Ferry was so long that he could not reach it in 
time to be of any use. He had ordered Heath to de- 
tach two thousand men, send word to Washington, 
and await further orders. He flattered himself that by 
this mode he should better obey what he was pleased 
to call " the spirit" of A¥ashington's orders, than if he 
should move from Northcastle. Withdrawing the 
troops would be attended with very serious conse- 
quences. On November 28d, he wrote to Bowdoin, 
President of the Massachusetts Council. He is evi- 



282 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

deiitly strongly inclined to act independently of his 
commander. He calls Washington's plans " absolute 
insanity." He looks to Massachusetts for assistance 
for his division, and on the following day he wrote to 
the same person, lamenting deeply the " indecision" 
exhibited in Congress, and in all our military councils. 
"Indecision" was on the eve of overthrowing the 
liberty of America and the rights of mankind. The 
resolves of Congress were not to be too nicely weighed. 
There were times when men were called on " to commit 
treason against the laws of the state for the salvation 
of the state," and in his opinion the present crisis de- 
manded " this brave, virtuous kind of treason." He 
begs the President to waive all formalities, and raise 
and send on forces immediately, and in the tone of a 
dictator, orders the militia to be sent to him. " Let 
your people," he concludes, "be well supplied with 
blankets and warm clothes, as I am determined, by the 
help of God, to unseat 'em (the enemy), even in the 
dead of winter." 

Lee evidently thought that he was the coming man, 
and that his own decided mind was to conquer where 
his irresolute commander had failed. 

On the 24th he again wrote to Washington from 
Northcastle, saying that he should endeavor to obey 
his orders, but that he doubted whether he would be able 
to bring with him any considerable numbers, as his 
m^n were in such a wretched condition for want of 
clothes, shoes, stockings and blankets, and the weather 
being so cold, made their sufferings intolerable. He 
had ordered Heath to send over two thousand men, 



LOSS OF FORT WASHINGTON. 283 

but " that great man," as Lee scornfully calls him, 
" had intrenched himself within the letter of his in- 
structions, and refused to part with a single file." 
The conclusion of this letter shows that he had plans 
of his own to carry out, and had no intention of going 
to the support of the main army. " I should march 
this day with Glover's brigade, but have just received 
intelligence that Rogers' corps, a part of the light 
horse, and another brigade, lie in so exposed a situ- 
ation as to present us the fairest opportunity of carry- 
ing them off. If we succeed, it will have a great effect, 
and amply compensate us for two days' delay." 

No sooner had Lee sent this letter than he received 
one from Washington, telling him that it was not 
Heath's division that was wanted, but his own. 
Heath's men must remain, as they had been ordered 
to guard the Highlands. It would not do to risk the 
gates of the Hudson. Washington thought that Lee 
was at Peekskill. He begged him to take every care 
to come by a safe road — to keep between the moun- 
tains and the British, who it was supposed were taking 
measures to cut off his march. 

Lee replied in much the same strain he had used 
before. He was delayed by the want of wagons. 
Washington was mistaken about the force of the 
British in the Jerseys. There were not nearly so 
many as he was told ; besides, he had stayed behind to 
sweep the country of Tories. He had sent some men 
on, and Would come himself the next day. 

On the same day he wrote to Heath in a strain of 
great irritation ; indeed, to judge from his letters, he 



284 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

seems never to have had the least command of his 
temper. 

"I perceive that you have formed an idea that 
should General Washington remove to the Straits of 
Magellan, the instructions he left with you upon a 
particular occasion have to all intents and purposes 
invested you with a command separate from and inde- 
pendent of all other superiors — that General Heath is 
by no means to consider himself obliged to obey the 
second in command." 

In conclusion, he informs Heath that in Washington's 
absence he commands on the east side of the Hudson, 
and that " for the future he would and must be obeyed." 

Heath, who had in his way quite as high an opinion 
of himself as Lee, and, as he tells us, was "fully 
acquainted with the theory of war in all its branches," 
does not seem to have been greatly impressed with 
this imperious letter. He sent to Washington for 
express instructions whether to obey Lee or not, and 
kept his men ready for a move. 

General Clinton was in an agony of anxiety lest the 
Hudson should be left open to the enemy. " Should 
we be ordered to move," he wrote, " all's over with the 
river this season, and I fear forever." Clinton's 
anxiety was needless, for Washington, who was then 
at Newark, sent back his original order that the 
troops under Heath should remain to guard the passes. 

Washington was at Newark on the 27th, still look- 
ing vainly for Lee, when he received Lee's letter, 
written on the 24th, in which he had mentioned his 
plan for surprising the " Queen's Rangers." 



LOSS OF FORT WASHINGTON. 285 

In a more prosperous state of affairs, it would have 
been an important advantage to gain ; but more vital 
interests were in the balance, and again Washington 
wrote to Lee, giving him explicit orders to advance as 
soon as possible. He showed how weak was the army, 
how close upon him were the British, who had already- 
crossed the Passaic, and who he thought were bent 
on taking Philadelphia. 

The situation of Washington's army was every hour 
growing more and more perilous. The enemy were 
close upon them, and the men, few in numbers, half 
clothed, half fed, and half frozen, wxre in no state 
to offer much opposition to Howe and Cornwallis, and 
their well-provided mercenaries. 

Considering the circumstances, we cannot but won- 
der at the patience of that Commander-in-chief who, 
with everything trembling in the balance, could con- 
descend to argue with a subordinate who so insolently 
set his orders at defiance. Had Washington been that 
Cromwell to whom he was so often compared, Lee 
would have had little time, and less cause, to lament 
his Commander's " indecision." 

Beset as he was, Washington hoped to make a stand 
at Brunswick, on the Raritan Eiver, or if not there, 
on the Delaware. To this some members of his coun- 
cil were opposed; but Greene warmly favored the 
idea. 

He broke up camp at Newark, and retreated toward 
Brunswick. So close was the enemy upon him, that 
the American rear-guard left the town at one end as 
the advance of Cornwallis entered the other. 



286 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Washington wrote from Brunswick, on the 29th, to 
Governor Livingston, of New Jersey, begging him to 
have all boats and river craft of all sorts, for seventy 
miles along the Delaware, removed to the western 
bank and put under guard, to be out of reach of the 
enemy. 

At the Earitan, Washington's hopes of making a 
stand were disappointed. Including the New Jersey 
militia, his force did not exceed four thousand men. 
Reed could get no help from the New Jersey Legisla- 
ture, which, driven from place to place, was about to 
dissolve. A great proportion of the people in the 
country had accepted Howe's "protections;" and 
while those who had taken up arms in their country's 
defence were being driven from one camp to another, 
through the State the peoj)le remained neutral, only to 
find that the "protections" were a mockery, and to 
fall a prey to the Hessians. 

The terms of the Maryland and New Jersey troops, 
under Mercer, were ended, and, in spite of the en- 
treaties of their commander, they persisted in going 
home, the New Jersey men being anxious, as well 
they might be, for their families. The Pennsylvania 
men, how^ever, who had no such excuse, went away in 
such numbers that guards were placed at the ferries 
and roads to intercept them. 

At this time of distress and difficulty there came to 
Washington by express a letter from Lee to Reed. It 
was in reply to Reed's epistle of the 21st. Washington 
supposed that it was on official business, and opened 
it, as was his custom. 



LOSS OF FORT WASHINGTON. 287 

One look at the page was sufficient to show Washing- 
ton that his most trusted friend in the hour of need 
had been indulging in disparaging criticism, not only 
on his conduct as a leader, but on his personal charac- 
ter, and that, too, to a subordinate, who, as it clearly 
appeared, was setting himself up as a rival.* Lee's 
letter ran as follows : 

" My Dear Reed : — I received your most obliging, 
flattering letter. I lament with you that fatal indecision 
of mind which, in war, is a much greater disqualifica- 
tion than stupidity or even want of personal courage. 
Accident may put a decisive blunderer in the right, 
but eternal defeat and miscarriage must attend the 
man of the best parts if cursed with indecision. The 
General recommends me, in so pressing a manner as 
almost to amount to an order, to bring over the Conti- 
nental troops under my command, which recommenda- 
tion or order throws me into the greatest dilemma, 
from several considerations." He then goes on to 
state these considerations, and continues : " My reason 
for not having marched already is that we have just 
received intelligence that Rogers' corps, the light 
horse, part of the Highlanders, and another brigade, 
lie in so exposed a situation as to give the fairest 
opportunity of being carried. I should have attempted 
it last night, but the rain was too violent, and when 
our pieces are wet, you know our troops are hors du 

* It may be urged as some excuse for Reed that he had strongly- 
advised the removal of the garrison at Fort Washington, and 
that the troops who were sacrificed there were many of them 
friends and acquaintances of his own. It is not much of an ex* 
eurie, but it is all there is. 



288 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

combat I only wait myself for tliis business of Rogers 
and company being over. I shall then fly to you, for, 
to confess a truth, I really think our chief will do 
better with me than without me." 

Whatever may have been the bitterness of Wash- 
ington's feelings, he made no display of them, nor, so 
far as is known, did he ever speak of the matter to any 
one. 

To Reed he uttered no word of reproach, and in his 
subsequent letters to Lee he never refers to the aflair 
at all. He sent on the letter to Reed, with a brief 
note, which I give in full, as it is perhaps one of the 
most remarkable proofs of Washington's forbearance, 
and of that strength wdiich held under control a natu- 
rally fiery temper. 

" Dear Sir : — The enclosed was put into my hands 
by an express from White Plains. Having no idea of 
its being a private letter, much less suspecting the 
tenor of the correspondence, I opened it, as I have 
done all other letters to you from the same place and 
Peekskill, upon the duties of your office, as I conceived 
and found them to be. This, as the truth, must be my 
excuse for seeing the contents of a letter which neither 
inclination nor intention would have prompted me to. 

" I thank you for the trouble and fatigue you have 
undergone in your journey to Burlington, and sincerely 
wish that your labors may be crowned with the desired 
success. With best respects to Mrs. Reed, I am, dear 
sir, George Washington. 

From that time the close and affectionate friendship 



LOSS OF FORT WASHINGTON. 289 

which had existed between Washington and Eeed was 
interrupted. Reed for some weeks was absent from 
headquarters, and though Washington consulted him 
on military matters, and showed a sense of his merits 
as a soldier, his personal confidence in him had re- 
ceived an incurable wound. His letters were less fre- 
quent, and were confined to official business. 

Reed seems to have felt the value of what he had 
lost, and in letters of a later date he attempts to ex- 
plain what had taken j^lace. When he says, however, 
that in the letter he had written to Lee, Washington 
" would see nothing inconsistent with the respect and 
afiection he always had felt, and always should feel, 
for his character," it must be confessed that he had 
either strangely forgotten its tenor, or else that he had 
very singular ideas of the nature of respect and affec- 
tion. 

Fortunately for Reed, Washington never saw the 
letter to Lee. The remarks on his character, the plan 
for consulting with Congress concerning the new army, 
without reference to that army's commander, were not 
to be explained away. Washington, however, never 
read the letter, and therefore he did not, as Reed 
entreated him to do, judge him by " realities, and not 
by appearances." Had he done so, he never could 
have written, as he afterwards did, that he was " per- 
fectly satisfied that matters were not as they had ap- 
peared from the letter alluded to."* 

It is to be hoped that a letter which Washington 

* This whole correspondence is to be found in the eighth appen- 
dix to the fourth volume of Sparks, and is well worth reading. 
19 



290 WASIIINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

received that day from that true and faithful patriot 
Livingston, Governor of New Jersey, was some conso- 
lation to his harassed and wounded mind, 

" I can easily," said the Governor, " form some 
ideas of the difficulties under which you labor, par- 
ticularly of one for which the j)ublic will make no 
allowance, because your prudence and fidelity to the 
cause will not suffer you to reveal it to the public — an 
instance of magnanimity perhaps superior to any that 
can be shown in battle. But depend upon it, my dear 
sir, the imj)artial world will do you ample justice 
before long. May God support you under that 
fatigue, both of body and mind, to which you must be 
constantly exposed."* 

Washington remained at Brunswick till the 1st of 
December, vainly hoping to be reinforced by Lee, and 
by the militia of New Jersey ; but iu both hopes he 
was disappointed, and iu his letters he speaks with 
some bitterness of the backwardness of the people, and 
their disaffection. 

There were many excuses, however, to be made for 
New Jersey. On his entrance into the State, Lord 
Howe had sent out a proclamation promising safety to 
those who should take the oath to the King. The 
American cause seemed almost hopelessly lost, and it 
appeared to the country people that they had every- 
thing to lose and nothing to gain by taking up arms 

* Washington was no more safe from slander than any other 
faithful servant of the country before or since. There are those 
yet living who can remember when the vilest stories were circu- 
lated concerning liis pei'sonal character. 



LOSS OF FORT WASHINGTON 201 

for their country. They availed themselves largely of 
the jDroclamation ; but they soon had reason to wish 
that they had taken a bolder part. The troops plun- 
dered and outraged friend and foe alike. The Hes- 
sians especially committed great outrages, and terrible 
stories of their brutalities are yet told in the State. 
The same strange stuj^idity which had from the first 
marked the British councils in regard to the colonies 
prevailed among the British generals, who suffered 
their troops to murder, outrage, plunder and burn, as 
if on purpose to convince even the Tories that there 
was no hope of humanity or justice except it were 
obtained by force of arms. 

AYashington did not fall back from Brunswick till 
the British appeared on the other side of the Karitan, 
when he broke down the bridge, and at night resumed 
his weary march, while Alexander Hamilton with his 
few field pieces opened a brisk cannonade, and this 
little battery, under command of a youth of nineteen, 
actually checked the advance of the British army.* 

Still retreating toward the Delaware, Washington 
left twelve hundred men at Princeton, to watch the 
enemy, under command of Stirling and Stephen. On 
the 2d of December, the army reached Trenton, and 
the baggage and stores were sent across the Delaware. 

"Nothing but necessity," says Washington, in a 
letter to Congress, "obliges me to retire before the 
enemy, and leave so much of the Jerseys unprotected. 

*I have heard those say who had conversed with men who 
shared in the retreat across New Jersey, that the old soldiers 
could not speak of those days without tears. 



292 WASHINGTON- AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

If the militia of this State had stepped forward in 
season (and timely notice they had), we might have 
prevented the enemy's crossing the Hackensack, or 
made a stand at Brunswick, on the Raritan." 

Lord Howe now issued a proclamation dated the 
30th of November, ordering all persons in arms against 
his Majesty's government to disband and return home, 
and he oifered a free pardon to those who obeyed in 
fifty days. Notwithstanding the display of the nature 
of royal mercy and protection which the Hessians were 
making in New Jersey, many took advantage of this 
proclamation who had been forward in the cause, and 
the enemy seem to have thought that the struggle was 
nearly over. The British correspondent, whom the fail- 
ure of a whole century's predictions has never discour- 
aged, was in a state of delight at our inevitable ruin. 

" The rebels continue flying before our army. Mr. 
"Washington had orders from Congress to rally and de- 
fend that post (Brunswick), but he sent word to Con- 
gress he could not. Such a panic has seized the rebels 
that no part of the Jerseys will hold them, and I doubt 
whether Philadelphia will stop their career. The Con- 
gress have lost their authority. . . . They are in such 
consternation they know not what to do. The two 
Adamses are in New England; Franklin gone to 
France.* . . . The fools have lost the assistance of the 
knaves. However, should they embrace the enclosed 
proclamation, they may yet escape the halter." 

* This was true, but neither the two Adamses nor Franklin had 
at that time ceased their exertions in the cause, as the correspon- 
dent possibly discovered afterward." 



LOSS OF FORT WASHINGTON. 293 

Washington, beset as he was, turned his thoughts 
toward the mountains as a last refuge for liberty. 

"What think you?" he said to Mercer. "If we 
should retreat to the back parts of Pennsylvania, would 
the Pennsylvanians support us ?" 

" If the lower counties give up, the back counties 
will do the same," said Mercer. 

" We must then retire to Augusta County in Vir- 
ginia," said Washington. " Numbers will repair to us 
for safety, and we will try a predatory war. If over- 
powered, we must cross the Alleghanies." 



CHAPTEK XVII. 

CAPTURE OF LEE. — WASHINGTON ON THE DELAWARE. 

WE must now turn back to Lee, whom we left at 
Northcastle, planning an attack upon Kogers. 
The attempt was a total failure, as the old Indian 
fighter was quite too much on his guard. 

On the 30th of November, Lee had only reached 
Peekskill, and on that day he wrote to Washington in 
a tone which possibly he might have modified had he 
known the history of his letter to Reed. 

He excused himself for not having obeyed orders on 
account of difficulties, which, as he insolently said, he 
would explain " when both had leisure." His forces 
had been augmented by the arrival of militia from 
New England, so that he boasted that by his delay 
he had served the cause. He should now enter 
the Jerseys with four thousand " firm and willing 
men," with whom he should make " a very important 
diversion." 

He asked for instructions, but asked that they might 
" bind him as little as possible," as he was " persuaded 
that detached generals could not have too much lati- 
tude, unless they are very incompetent indeed." Did 
we not know how limited were the powers entrusted to 
"Washington, we should wonder at the style in which 
(294) 



CAPTURE OF LEE. 295 

Lee, who well knew what military respect demanded, 
was allowed to address the Commander-in-chief. 

Lee counted on no further difficulty in obtaining 
two thousand men from Heath, though in direct defi- 
ance of Washington's orders. 

On the evening of the 30th, he visited Heath, and 
held a conversation with him, reported by Heath him- 
self in his Memoirs. He referred to Heath's refusal to 
detach his men. 

" In point of laio'' said he, " you are right ; but in 
point oi policy I think you are wrong ;" and he added, 
with his usual self-sufficiency, " I am going into the 
Jerseys for the salvation of America. I wish to take 
with me a larger force than I now have, and I request 
you to order two thousand of your men to march with 
me." 

Heath answered that such a number could not be 
spared. Lee asked for one thousand. Heath replied 
that the business might as well be brought to a point 
at once, and that not a single man should march by 
his order. 

" Then," cried Lee, " I will order them myself" 

" That makes a wide difference," replied the other, 
who had not read "every military treatise in the 
English language" in vain. " You are my senior, but 
I have received positive orders from him who is supe- 
rior to us both, and I will not myself break those 
orders," and he produced Washington's last letter of 
instruction. Lee looked at it and remarked, 

" The Commander-in-chief is now at a distance, and 
does not know what is necessary here so well as I do." 



296 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

He asked to see the return book of the division, and 
running his eye over the columns, he chose out two 
regiments. 

"You will order them to march early to-morrow 
morning to join me," he said to Major Huntington, 
Heath's adjutant. 

"Issue such orders at your peril, sir," exclaimed 
Heath to his officer ; and then turning to Lee, he ad- 
dressed him as follows : " Sir, if you come to this post 
and mean to issue orders here which will break the 
positive ones I have received, I pray you do it com- 
pletely yourself, and through your own deputy adju- 
tant-general who is present, and do not draw me or 
any of my family in as partners in the guilt." 

" It is right," said Lee. " Colonel Scammel, do you 
issue the order." 

The Colonel complied, but Heath was not satisfied. 

" I have one more request to make, sir," he said, 
" and that is that you will be pleased to give me a 
certificate that you exercise command at this post and 
order from it these regiments." 

Lee hesitated to comply. He probably knew that 
if he were ever called to account for what was a grave 
ofience against military law, such a paper would add 
much to the evidence against him. 

Clinton, how^ever, who was present, said that the 
request was too reasonable to be refused; and Lee 
finally gave Heath the required paper, certifying that, 
as commanding ofiicer at the post, he had ordered the 
march of Prescott's and Wyllis' regiments. 

Heath had done what he could, and he said no more. 



CAPTURE OF LEE. 297 

Early the next morning the two regiments were 
moved to the river to embark, when Lee rode up to 
Heath's door and told him that " on further considera- 
tion he had decided not to take the two regiments, and 
that Heath might order them to return to their former 
posts. 

" This conduct of General Lee," says Heath in his 
Memoirs, " appears not a little extraordinary, and one 
is almost at a loss to account for it. Lie had been a 
soldier from his youth, had a perfect knowledge of the 
service in all its branches, but w^as rather obstinate in 
his temper." 

It was a happy thing for the country that Lleath's 
sense of military duty was also backed up by a rather 
obstinate temper, as most inexperienced soldiers would 
have hesitated so stoutly to oppose one who was not 
only a professional soldier of high reputation, but the 
popular idol of the time. 

It was only on the 4th of December that Lee crossed 
the Hudson, and began a march through New Jersey 
so slow and so laggard that it is difficult to account 
for his course. He knew well the extreme peril of 
Washington's army, but he showed nothing of that 
alacrity which had distinguished him in the South. 
So strange were his proceedings that he has been sus- 
pected of treacherous designs ; but subsequent events 
show this suspicion to be unjust. 

The truth was, that he was intensely conceited, and 
longed to signalize himself by some exploit in an inde- 
pendent command. 

On the 6th of December, having been reinforced by 



298 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

fifteen hundred militia from Pennsylvania, Washington 
went back to Princeton to make a stand at that place, 
if possible. On the way he received a letter from 
General Greene, mentioning a report that Lee " Avas 
on the heels of the enemy." " I should think, writes 
Greene, " that he had better keep on the flanks than 
on the rear. General Lee had better be confined 
within the lines of some general plan, or else his opera- 
tions will be independent of yours." 

Lee, however, had plans of his own. He was by 
this time come no farther than Pompton, and pressing 
as was the emergency, he found time to write to the 
Governor of Khode Island to lament the want of mili- 
tary ability in all his contemporaries. " Theory joined 
to practice, or a heaven-born genius, can alone consti- 
tute a general. As to the latter, God Almighty in- 
dulges the modern world very rarely with the specta- 
cle ; and I do not know, from what I have seen, that 
he has been more profuse of this ethereal spirit to the 
Americans than to other nations." 

While Lee was delaying his forces at Pompton, for 
no other purpose, as it seems, than that he might favor 
the Governor with this eloquence, Cornwallis arrived 
within two miles of Princeton, and obliged Washington 
to fall back to the Delaware. Stirling, that he might 
not be surrounded, retired to Trenton. Boats were 
collected from all sides, and the men and such stores 
as were left once more sent back over the wintry river. 
Washington himself, as usual in a retreat, came over 
with the rear guard on Sunday, December 7th. He 
then had the boats destroyed, and troops placed 



CAPTURE OF LEE. 299 

opposite the fords. He knew that his worn and scanty- 
forces could offer little opposition if the enemy brought 
boats with them. 

Happily, however, it had not occurred to Cornwallis 
to bring boats with him. The Americans had hardly 
got over when Cornwallis came down " in all the pomp 
of war," expecting to find means of transport, and 
continue his pursuit. For seventy miles up and down 
the river, however, the boats had been seized, and 
Cornwallis stood still. Happily, it never occurred to 
him to send elsewhere for boats. He placed his Ger- 
man troops along the river, stationed his main force at 
New Brunswick, and placidly waited for the river to 
freeze over, so that he might cross on the ice. How 
little could Lord Cornwallis have imagined, as he saAV 
the last of that worn, ragged, forlorn assembly hurry- 
ing over the river in retreat before his victorious forces, 
that the day would come when he and his gallant 
array should lay down their arms before those very 
men and their harassed, defeated commander. 

Washington, in a letter written on the 8th of De- 
cember to Congress, entreats them to lose no time in 
raising forces if they would save Philadelphia. He 
mentions that, though he has sent exj^resses to Lee, he 
has no certain intelligence from that commander. " I 
am at a loss," he says, " to account for the slowness of 
his march." 

On the 10th of December, Washington again wrote 
to Lee. In the plainest terms he describes his almost 
desperate situation. Considering what had passed, it 
seems singular that he should "request and entreat" 



300 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Lee to join him witli all possible expedition, instead 
of bidding him do his duty and obey orders. He tells 
him that Major Hoops, who had been sent post haste, 
would give him the route. He urges the danger of 
Philadelphia. " Do come on^^ he writes ; " your arrival 
may be fortunate, and if it can be effected without 
delay, may be the means of preserving a city whose 
loss must prove of the most fatal consequence to the 
cause of America." 

On the next day he wrote again to the same effect, 
but Lee seems not to have paid the least attention to 
his wishes. 

Such was the danger threatening Philadelphia, that 
Putnam was sent to put it in a state of defence, and 
Mifflin to assist him. 

On the 11th of December, Congress passed a resolu- 
tion to the effect that nothing but the last necessity 
should force them to retire from Philadelphia. This 
resolution they desired to have published to the army, 
but Washington thought such action unwise under the 
circumstances, delayed to publish the resolution, and 
wrote to Congress to explain his reasons. It was well 
that he did so, for on the very day after the resolve 
was passed, Congress very wisely listened to the argu- 
ments of Putnam and Mifflin, and broke up, to meet 
at Baltimore on the 20th. 

Washington's whole force was but five thousand five 
hundred men. He expected, however, to be reinforced 
by seven regiments under Gates, sent down by Schuyler 
from the north. With these additions and with Lee's 
forces he hoped to be able to make a stand. 



CAPTURE OF LEE. 301 

On the 10th and 11th he again wrote to Lee, urging 
liim once more to hasten his advance. Lee, however, 
was no farther advanced than Morristown, whence he 
wrote to the committee which Congress had left in 
Philadelphia. It was three weeks since he had re- 
ceived Washington's first urgent entreaties to join him 
as soon as possible. These entreaties had been often 
repeated, but notwithstanding, he wrote to the com- 
mittee as follows : 

" If I were not taught to think the army with Gene- 
ral Washington had been considerably reinforced, I 
should immediately join him, but as I am assured he is 
very strong, I should imagine we can make a better im- 
pression by beating up and harassing their detached 
parties in the rear, for which purpose a good post at 
Chatham seems the best calculated. We shall, I ex- 
pect, annoy, distract, and consequently weaken them 
in a desultory war." 

If such had been Lee's intention, he had had three 
weeks in which to act ; but he had " harassed, weak- 
ened and annoyed" no one but his long-suffering and 
too-patient commander. 

On the same day he wrote to Washington an answer 
to the express message sent by Major Hoops. He 
takes the tone of an independent leader, and writes to 
Washington almost as if he were addressing an in- 
ferior : 

" I am extremely shocked to hear that your force is 
so inadequate to the necessity of your situation, as I 
had been taught to think you had been considerably 
reinforced. Your last letters, proposing a plan of 



302 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

forced marches and surprises, convinced me that there 
was no danger of your being obliged to cross the Dela- 
ware, in consequence of which I have put myself in a 
position the most convenient to cooperate with you, by 
attacking their rear. I cannot persuade myself that 
Philadelphia is their object at present. It will be 
difficult, I am afraid, to join you, but cannot I do you 
more service by attacking them in their rear ?" 

This remarkable letter from a major-general to a 
Commander-in-chief was sent by a light horseman, and 
received an immediate reply. 

"Philadelphia," writes Washington, "beyond all 
question, is the object of the enemy's movements, and 
nothing less than our utmost exertions will prevent 
General Howe from possessing it. The force I have 
is weak, and utterly incompetent to that end. I must 
therefore entreat you to push on with every possible 
succor you can bring." 

While at Chatham, Lee heard that three of the 
regiments under Gates, from the northern army, had 
arrived at Peekskill. He immediately sent orders to 
Heath to forward them to Morristown. 

" I am in hopes to reconquer (if I may so express 
myself) the Jerseys," he writes ; and adds, as though 
he had accomplished some remarkable feat of arms, 
"It was really in the hands of the enemy before I 
came." 

On the 11th he wrote to Washington once more 
from Morristown, saying that his forces would be de- 
layed there two days for want of shoes. Notwith- 
standing the express directions he had received by. 



CAPTURE OF LEE. 303 

Major Hoops concerning his route, he speaks as if he 
were at a loss what road to take, and thinks he will 
make his way to a ferry above Burlington, and wished 
to have boats sent there to meet him. 

Washington, in return, expresses his surprise that 
Lee, after the instructions he had received, should be 
in doubt about his line of march. He told him that 
boats were waiting for him at Tinicum, where they had 
already been for some days. 

" I have so frequently mentioned our situation, and 
the necessity of your aid, that it is painful for me to 
add a word on the subject. Congress have directed 
Philadelphia to be defended to the last extremity. 
The fatal consequence that may attend its loss are but 
too obvious to every one. Your arrival may be the 
means of saving it." 

In the meantime, while three of Gates' seven regi- 
ments were advancing to Morristown, Gates, with the 
remaining four, had landed at Esopus, whence he fol- 
lowed a back country road by Delaware and Minisink. 
On the 11th of December he was overtaken by a heavy 
snow-storm, in a lonely valley near the Wallpeck, in 
New Jersey. Cut off from all sources of information, 
he sent Major Wilkinson, then a young officer of 
twenty-two, with a letter to Washington, stating his 
position, and asking what road he should take. Wil- 
kinson crossed the country to Sussex Court-house, and, 
finding a guide, started down the country in search of 
Washington's camp. He learned that the Com- 
mander-in-chief, with his army, was on the other side 
of the Delaware, and that as the boats had all been 



304 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

seized, he could not cross. He discovered, however, that 
Lee was at Morristown, and to him, as second in com- 
mand, Major Wilkinson went to ask orders for Gates. 

Lee had left Morristown on the 12th, but with that 
strange want of activity which had marked the late 
course of the formerly impetuous soldier, he went no 
farther than Vealtown, only eight miles away. There 
he left Sullivan with the forces, while he took up his 
own quarters at Baskingridge, three miles from the 
main body, at an inn kept by a Mrs. White. 

Wilkinson, riding all night, arrived at Basking- 
ridge about four in the morning. He saw General 
Lee in bed, and gave him Gates' letter to Washington. 
Lee did not break the seal till he learned from Wilkin- 
son the tenor of the letter. The young major, tired out, 
took a blanket and lay down by the fire, with the other 
officers of the suite ; " for," he says, " we were not 
encumbered in those days with beds or blankets." 

Lee did not rise till eight o'clock. Then he came 
down dressed in the slovenly manner for which he was 
noted, wearing a blanket-coat and slippers ; and Wil- 
kinson, who seems to have been particular on the sub- 
ject of clothes, informs us that his collar was open, 
and that his linen had to all appearance been w^orn 
for some days. He made some inquiries about the 
northern army, gave the young officer an account of 
the movements in New Jersey, and made no scruple of 
condemning them in his ordinary sarcastic fashion. 

The remainder of the morning, precious as the hours 
were, he spent in quarrelling with the militia officers. 
Among them were certain members of the Connecticut 



CAPTURE OF LEE. 305 

light horse, whose services, as it seems, had again been 
proffered and accepted. They had not, however, 
modernized the fashions which had formerly excited so 
much amusement, for the observant Major tells us 
that several of them wore "large, full-buttoned per- 
ukes." 

These sturdy sons of Connecticut and the arbitrary 
Lee were not likely to act very harmoniously together, 
and Lee insulted and swore at them, for no better 
reason, it seems, than that they wished to know where 
to find forage, and where to get their horses shod. 
Colonel Scammel came from Sullivan for orders. Lee, 
after studying for a few moments a map of the country, 
said to Scammel, " Tell General Sullivan to move down 
toward Pluckamin, and that I will soon be with him." 

Wilkinson observes that this direction was opposed 
to the orders he had received to cross the Delaware 
near Alexandria, and he was convinced that Lee 
meant to attack the British post at Brunswick. It 
was past ten when they sat down to breakfast, and 
afterward Lee wrote a letter to Gates, which, knowing 
the story as we know it, it is impossible to read with- 
out indignation. 

He expressed the utmost contempt for Washington, 
and with surprising forgetfulness of the manner in 
which he had taken his own course, regardless of all 
orders, he says : " He (Washington) has thrown me 
into a situation where I have my choice of difficulties : 
if I stay in this province, I risk myself and my army, 
and if I do not stay, the province is lost forever." 

The province was not lost forever, even though 
20 



306 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Lee's difficulties were speedily resolved in a manner 
that for some time relieved him of all responsibility 
in the matter. 

While Lee was in the act of writing this letter, 
Wilkinson, looking out of the window, saw a party of 
British dragoons turn the corner of a lane leading to 
the main road, and come up at full charge. 

"Here, sir," cried Wilkinson, "are the British 
cavalry !" 

"Where?" asked Lee, who had just signed his 
letter. 

" Around the house !" answered Wilkinson, for the 
troopers had at once encompassed the little tavern. 

" Where are the guard ?" asked Lee ; and then he 
swore at the guard, and asked why they did not fire. 
Then, after a moment's pause, he said to Wilkinson, 
" Do, sir, see what has become of the guard." 

The guards probably thought that they were not 
bound to be more careful than their general. They 
had stacked their arms and gone to the south side of 
the house, on the other side of the road, to enjoy the 
sun. They were soon dispersed by Colonel Harcourt 
and the dragoons, who had been led to the spot by a 
Tory. The women of the house would have had Lee 
hide himself in a bed, but he w^ould not hear of such a 
plan. 

Wilkinson placed himself in a spot where he could 

be attacked only by one man at a time. He had a 

pistol in each hand, and hoped when these should be 

fired to be able to defend himself with the sword. 

\i\ " this unpleasant situation," as he truly calls it, he 




Here, sir," cried Wilkinson, "are the British cavalry," p. 30(>. 



CAPTURE OF LEE. 307 

heard a voice without declare that if the general did 
not surrender in five minutes the house would be fired. 
There was a pause, and then the words were repeated, 
with the addition of a solemn oath. Within the next 
few minutes some one exclaimed, " Here is the gene- 
ral ! He has surrendered." 

The British were in too great a hurry to secure their 
main prize to trouble themselves about such small 
game as a young brigade major. 

Their trumpets sounded the recall to those troopers 
who were chasing the runaway guards. Lee, bare- 
headed, and still in his blanket-coat and sli23pers, was 
mounted upon Wilkinson's horse, which had been 
standing at the door, and the dragoons sped away to 
Brunswick with their captive. Lee's thoughts during 
that hurried ride must have been wretched indeed. 

Wilkinson mounted the first horse he could find, and 
hurried away to Sullivan, to whom he gave the yet 
open letter which Lee had written to Gates. Sullivan 
read it, returned it without comment to Wilkinson, 
and advised him to rejoin Gates with all speed. Then, 
as the command was now in his own hands, he put 
aside Lee's orders, changed his route, and hurried on 
to join the Commander-in-chief by the road which Lee 
had been told to follow. 

The British were so delighted with the capture of 
Lee, that they fired their cannon on his arrival in 
camp. " We have taken," they said, " the American 
Palladium." 

A large party had regarded Lee as the man who 
was to save the country and the army, in this hour of 



308 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

its distress, and his loss was thought a great misfor- 
tune. 

His most ardent friends, however, were at a loss to 
account for his course in New Jersey, and the extreme 
carelessness which had led to his capture. He was 
suspected of collusion with the enemy, but the manner 
in which he was treated soon dispelled the suspicion. 
The British affected to regard him as a deserter, as he 
had once served in their army, and treated him with 
considerable severity. Lee had taken care to let every 
one know that Fort Washington had been held against 
his advice. He had lost, as it seems from all we can 
learn, no opportunity to detract from Washington's 
reputation, and enhance his own at the expense of the 
Commander-in-chief. His letters and his sarcasm had 
not been without their effect in increasing the then 
growing discontent against Washington. Wilkinson, 
who was conversant with what went on behind the 
scenes in the camp, says : 

" In the temper of the times, if General Lee had an- 
ticipated General Washington in cutting the cordon of 
the enemy between New York and the Delaware, the 
Commander-in-chief would probably have been super- 
seded. In this case, Lee would have succeeded him." 

Such a change would have been a far greater misfor- 
tune for the country than the loss of New York. Had 
Lee been one of the world's greatest generals, his irri- 
table temper, his intense egotism, his rude manners, 
with his habit of insulting every one who differed with 
him, utterly unfitted him for a position demanding the 
greatest self-control, patience and temper. 



CAPTURE OF LEE. 309 

" This is an additional misfortune," writes Washing- 
ton to Augustine, concerning the capture of Lee, " and 
the more vexatious as it was by his own folly and im- 
prudence." And in his letter to Congress he expresses 
nothing but regret for the loss to the service. 

Before their adjournment, Congress had passed re- 
solutions ordering that Washington should be possessed 
of all power " to order and direct all things relative to 
the department, and to the operation of the war." 

He immediately went to work to raise three battal- 
ions of artillery, and by oifering an increase of twenty- 
five per cent, upon the pay, and a bounty of ten dollars, 
he induced those whose terms had expired to remain 
for six wrecks. 

"It is no time," he writes, " to stand upon expense, 
nor in matters of self-evident exigency to refer to 
Congress at the distance of one hundred and forty 
miles. It may be thought that I am going out of the 
line of my duty. A character to lose, an estate to 
forfeit, the inestimable blessing of liberty at stake, 
and a life devoted, must be my excuse." The local 
militia had begun to turn out more freely. The out- 
rages in New Jersey had quickened and roused many 
of the wavering in Pennsylvania. Colonel Cadwalader 
came down from Pennsylvania with a fine regiment, 
and was associated with Keed in keeping watch on the 
German troops along the river. 

On the 20th, arrived Sullivan with Lee's men. These 
troops were in a more miserable condition than were 
Washington's own. A great part of them were sent 
immediately to the hospitals, and the. rest were so ex- 



310 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

hausted that they thought only of going home as soon 
as their term should expire. On the same day came 
in General Gates with the remnant of his four regi- 
ments. Wilkinson arrived in his company, and re- 
sumed his office of brigade major in St. Clair's brigade. 

This increase of numbers did not greatly decrease 
"Washington's perplexities, as ten days would disband 
almost his whole corps, and leave him with only 1400 
men, miserably clothed and half fed, and ill provided 
in every way. 

Wilkinson says of the Commander-in-chief, " I saw 
him in that gloomy period, dined with him, and atten- 
tively marked his aspect. Always grave and thought- 
ful, he appeared at that time pensive and solemn in 
the extreme." 

Washington's situation was enough to account for 
his gravity and solemnity, but he was probably then 
meditating the designs which he was soon to execute. 
General Greene, and with him many other officers, 
■was agreed that now, if ever, was the time when some- 
thing might be done by a bold stroke ; and so early as 
the 14th of December, Washington was meditating an 
attack. 

The British, in their confidence, had grown careless. 
Howe was in his winter quarters in New York. Corn- 
wallis, sure that the war would be ended with the 
almost certain fall of Philadelphia, had wearied wait- 
ing for the river to freeze over, and was on the point 
of embarking for England. The Hessians were sta- 
tioned along the Delaware, facing the American lines, 
which were on the west bank. 



CAPTURE OF LEE. 311 

"With the reinforcements he had received, Washing- 
ton had between five and six thousand men. So far as 
will, determination, and righteous wrath can make 
men fit for battle, the troops now with the Commander- 
in-chief were excellent material. The fearful and 
faint-hearted had gone back. The dread at first in- 
spired by the Hessians was lost in bitter resentment at 
their brutality. The people of New Jersey, finding 
that his Majesty's mercies were, after all, only those 
of the wicked, began to take up arms, literally, with a 
vengeance. 

In Washington's camp were men to whom British 
oppression and faithlessness had left nothing but their 
arms. In many cases the wives and children of these 
men had suffered outrages which their husbands and 
fathers must have been less than human not to resent. 
Even members of the peaceful Society of Friends, who 
had hitherto looked upon the war with horror, felt the 
old fighting blood stir in their veins. Taking up such 
weapons as they could find, they came through the 
woods and by cross roads to assist, if it might be, in 
driving the invaders from the soil. Men to whom 
tyranny has left nothing to lose are the most danger- 
ous of enemies, and among those who gathered in 
Washington's camp were many who might have said, 
in the words of the ballad : 

" Nor board nor garner own we now, 
Nor roof nor latched door, 
Nor kind mate bound by holy vow, 
To bless a good man's store."* 

* These lines are by Joanna Bailey, who was herself a Friend. 



312 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

In a few days many of the best troops would finish 
their term of enlistment, and so great were their suf- 
ferings, for want of clothes and blankets, that to 
remain was actually to run the risk of freezing to 
death. 

Washington knew that the Hessian discipline was 
greatly relaxed, as they held the Americans in too 
much contempt to guard very carefully against an 
attack. 

Colonel Kahl,* who commanded at Trenton, was 
much trusted, on account of his success in the New 
York campaign. According to a journal of one of 
his own officers, quoted by Irving, the Colonel was 
deficient in foresight and care. He was fond of parade 
and bustle, and the Lieutenant of the diary was par- 
ticularly disgusted at his partiality for martial music, 
and avers that he kept the officer on guard marching 
round the church with his men and musicians, " look- 
ing like a Catholic procession, and wanting only the 
cross and banner and chanting choristers." This 
musical colonel, instead of talking with his staff offi- 
cers on parade about military duty, discoursed only of 
sweet sounds. He sat up late at nights, received his 
officers sitting in his bath, and lay abed till nine o'clock 
in the morning. According to the Lieutenant, he was 
a perfect king log. He would not throw up any de- 
fensive works, and ridiculed the very idea when it was 
advanced. 

" Works !" he said. " Pooh, pooh !" and added, with 
a low jest, " Let them come ; we'll at them with the 
* This officer's name is also written Rail, Ralle, and Rawl. 



CAPTURE OF LEE. 313 

bayonet." A veteran officer represented that, at all 
events, the works would do no harm, and the Lieuten- 
ant offered to construct them ; but Kahl only laughed, 
whereat the Lieutenant observes, "He believed the 
name of Eahl more fearful and redoubtable than all 
the works of Vauban and Cohorn." 

It is evident, however, that Kahl had rather more 
foresight than this German Dalgetty was willing to 
allow, as on the 21st of December, when there was a 
rumor that the Americans were about to move, Rahl 
reconnoitred the river as far as Frankfort, and caused 
pickets and posts to be placed without the town every 
night. 

Washington knew that whatever he had to do must 
be done quickly. He learned, from a letter that had 
fallen into his hands, that the enemy were only waiting 
for the ice to form to push on to Philadelphia. 

He consulted with Gates, wishing him to take the 
command at Bristol, and from thence assist operations. 
Gates, however, replied that he was not well, and asked 
leave to go to Philadelphia. On the eve of a battle 
on which hung the fate of the army, this was a strange 
request ; but Gates, like Lee, was no friend to Wash- 
ington. His vanity had been wounded at having been 
made subordinate to Schuyler in the north ; and it was 
his intention to make interest in Congress for an inde- 
pendent command. 

Washington begged that he would at least stop in 
Bristol and consult wdth Reed and Cadwalader ; but 
Gates, instead of complying, took quarters at Newtown, 
and on the 24th of December set out for Baltimore. 



314 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY^SIX. 

Wilkinson accompanied him as far as Philadelphia. 
Gates, he informs us, seemed much out of spirits, but 
he criticised severely Washington's course, blamed 
him for trying to make a stand at the Delaware, and 
said that he would do better to retire south of the Sus- 
quehanna, and there form an army. He said that it 
was his intention to propose this plan to the Congress 
at Baltimore ; and though Wilkinson had no leave of 
absence, and his division was on the eve of a battle, 
Gates urged the young officer to go with him to his 
journey's end. " My duty," says the Major, " forbade 
the thought." 

The attack on the Hessians was to be made in three 
divisions. 

Washington was to cross the river at McKonkey's 
Ferry, nine miles above Trenton, and march down upon 
Rahl. 

General Ewing, leading the Pennsylvania militia, 
was ordered to cross a mile below Trenton, secure the 
Assunpink, which ran south of the town, and cut off 
retreat. 

Putnam was to take the men then busied under his 
command in fortifying Philadelphia, join Cadwalader, 
cross below Burlington, and fall upon the forces under 
Count Donop. 

All the divisions were to cross at night, and be at 
their posts at five in the morning. 

There is little certainty in any plan involving the 
action of separated forces. Since the departure of 
CoDgress, the Tories in Philadeljihia had grown bold. 
A threatened insurrection kept Putnam in the city 



CAPTURE OF LEE. 315 

with all his force but five hundred, whom he sent into 
Jersey to act with Cadwalader. 

" Christmas night, one hour before day, is the time 
fixed upon for our attempt upon Trenton," writes the 
Commander to Reed. " For Heaven's sake keep this 
to yourself, as the discovery of this may prove fatal 
to us. Nothing but dire necessity will, nay musty 
justify an attack," 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE BATTLE OF TEEXTOX. 



EARLY on the eyening of Ckristmas day the divi- 
sion under Washington, numbering twenty-four 
hundred men, and twenty small pieces of artillery, 
were drawn out near McKonkey's Ferry, ready to cross 
when night should fall, as the plan was to haye all the 
forces on the other side before midnight. 

Soon after the troops had started for the ferry, Wil- 
kinson, who had left G^tes on his way to Baltimore, 
returned to camp with a letter from that General to 
the Commander-in-chief. He found that Washington 
had already gone down to the riyer with Greene, Sulli- 
yan, Mercer, Stephens and Stirling. Greene, who, 
though brought up among " Friends," was a born 
soldier, was fiill of ardor for battle. It was the opinion 
of many that his adyice had caused the loss at Fort 
Washington, and it may be that he was anxious to 
efface the memory of that misfortune. 

Wilkinson immediately hurried forward to join the 
army ; and one circumstance that he mentions shows 
what must haye been endured by those who had set 
out to do battle with Rahl's Hessians. He traced the 
march for fiye miles in the new-fallen snow by the 
(316) 



TEE BATTLE OF TREXTOX. 317 

blood firom the feet of those whose shoes were broken. 

Arrived at the feny, the Major found Washington 
alone, and just about to mount his horse, and gave 
him the letter from Grates. 

"What a time is this," said Washington, with 
solemnity, " to hand me letters." 

Wilkinson replied that he had been charged to de- 
liver it by General Gates. 

" By General Gates I" said Washington. " Where 
ishef 

" I left him this morning lq Philadelphia." 

"What was he doing there?'' asked Washington, 
probably surprised, as well he might be, at Grates' dis- 
regard of his wishes. 

Wilkinson told the truth, unwelcome as he knew it 
must be. He understood General Grates was on his 
way to Congress. 

" On his way to Congress," repeated Washington, 
earnestly ; and then, as he broke the seal of the letter, 
Wilkinson made his bow and withdrew to join his 
brigade, on the bank of the river. 

Whatever was the contents of Gates' letter, or what- 
ever indignation Washington felt, he spent no time 
that night on the matter. Considering what had 
passed, he could hardly fail to suspect that some of 
his officers were conspiring against him, and he must 
have been more than mortal not to be deeply hurt at 
Gates' desertion of the army in its hour of need. Pos- 
sibly if any thoughts but those connected with the 
coming battle filled his mind, they were given to God, 
to his wife, to his home at Blount Yernon, and to Vir- 



318 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

ginia Christmas nights passed in far other fashion. 
What that strong soul suffered in what must have 
been one of the darkest hours of his life, was known 
only to God. 

In a few minutes he joined Sullivan, Greene, Mer- 
cer, and the other generals, on the bank of the river, 
and the work began. 

About sunset the boats began to cross. Colonel 
Glover, with the Marblehead sailor regiment, was in 
advance, to guide the others over the darkening 
stream. But for these men, accustomed to face the 
sea and wind, the passage w^ould hardly have been 
possible. The night was dark and stormy, and great 
masses of ice drifted against the boats, and menaced 
utter wreck. Colonel Knox, who superintended the 
passage of the guns, made his far-sounding voice heard 
over the wind and the rush of the river, as he shouted 
directions to his men. Washington had crossed over 
with the first, and waited on the river bank while one 
precious hour after another slipped away. So difficult 
was the passage of the river, against a high wind and 
amid the floating ice,* that it was three o'clock before 
the artillery was landed, and nearly four before the 
troops were ready to march. To surprise Trenton, 
nine miles away, before morning, was clearly impos- 
sible. To return undiscovered was out of the question, 
and if the other divisions had crossed, they might, if 
left unsupported, be utterly destroyed. 

* Among those who were most active in ferrying over the army, 
the names have been preserved of Uriah Slack, William Greene, 
and David Laning. 



iii'M, 




THE BATTLE OF TRENTON. 319 

" I determined to push on, at all events," says 
Washington.* 

The troops marched in two columns. The Com- 
mander led the first himself, with Mercer, Stephens, 
Greene and Stirling, by the upper or Pennington road, 
entering Trenton on the north. Sullivan, with the 
other division, went by the river road, leading into the 
west end of the town. Orders were given to each 
division to force the outguards, and push directly 
toward the centre of Trenton. 

Notwithstanding the swiftness and secrecy which 
had marked Washington's preparations, Grant had 
received notice of the intended attack, and had sent to 
warn Rahl. The Colonel was accordingly on the alert. 
Washington's position was more dangerous than he 
supposed ; but one of those special providences which 
so often occurred to save the American army took 
place on that night, and turned the balance. 

About dusk, just as Washington was preparing to 
cross the river, an alarm was given from the Trenton 
outposts. The whole garrison was drawn out under 
arms, and Rahl himself hastened to the outpost. A 
body of men had suddenly come out of the woods, fired 
upon the guard and disappeared. 

Rahl made a careful examination of the neighbor- 
hood, but found no traces of the enemy. He supposed 
that this was the attack of which he had been warned, 

* Colonel Washington, our Washington's gallant cavalier 
ancestor, was so well known for his bravery, that it became a 
proverb in the army, when any difficulty arose, " Away with it, 
quoth Washington."— -Z/^o_yc?, quoted by Chamhers, 



320 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

and thought that all danger was over. It was a very- 
cold night, and one which the Germans were all accus- 
tomed to give to feasting and pleasure. He allowed 
the troops to go back to their quarters and lay aside 
their arms. 

It was never exactly known who it was that made 
this fortunate diversion. 

Rahl, having, as he conceived, no further cause of 
alarm, was having a Christmas supper at the house of 
one Abraham Hunt, a man who dealt with both Brit- 
ish and Americans, but who was known to be a Tory. 
Cards and drinking had been going on all night, and 
were still in full progress, when just at dawn came a 
messenger post haste, bearing a note to Rahl, from a 
Tory who had seen Washington's advance. 

The black servant who kept the door said the gen- 
tleman could not be disturbed, and refused to let in 
the messenger. However, he carried the note to Rahl, 
who put it into his pocket without a glance, and con- 
tinued his game. 

Meanwhile, in snow, and hail, and a wind which 
drove in their faces, the Americans were on their way. 

Day was dawning when Sullivan halted near the 
entrance of the town, where the roads crossed, and 
found that many of his muskets were useless with wet. 

" What is to be done ?" said Sullivan. 

" Push on and use bayonets," said St. Clair. 

Sullivan, however, sent an officer to ask advice of 
Washington. The messenger came back somewhat 
alarmed, for Washington, angered at the delay, when 
every moment was precious, had, in an unwonted out- 



THE BATTLE OF TREXTON. 321 

break, indignantly bidden him go back instantly and 
" tell General Sullivan to advance and charge." 

It was nearly eight o'clock when Washington drew 
near the town. The storm which had caused so much 
distress on the march had kept every one within doors. 
The snow had muffled the sound of the soldiers' tramp, 
and the roll of the artillery wheels. Probably, also, 
most of the Hessian officers and men had passed 
Christmas night in the same jolly fashion as their 
commander, and were now sleeping uncommonly 
sound. 

Washington rode up to a man whom he saw chop- 
ping wood by the roadside, and asked him, 

" Where is the Hessian picket?" 

" I don't know," he answered sullenly. 

" You may tell," said Captain Forest, who probably 
knew the man's politics, " for that is General Wash- 
ington." 

"God bless and prosper you !" cried the man, raising 
his hands to Heaven. " The picket is in that house, 
and the sentry stands near that tree." 

Captain William Washington and Lieutenant James 
Monroe, afterwards President, led the vanguard. 

Now this picket of Hessians was under command of 
that very lieutenant who had censured Rahl's want of 
caution, and it is amusing to find that he was all but 
caught napping himself. He says that his sentries 
were not as vigilant as they should have been, and that 
if he had not happened to step out, they would all 
have been prisoners before they could lay their hands 
on their arms. 
21 



322 WASHINGTON ANT) SEVENTY-SIX. 

Thinking, at first, that it was only such an attack as 
had occurred the night before, the Lieutenant en- 
deavored to make a stand, but seeing the force he had 
to deal with, he fell back to a company placed to sup- 
port him, which, however, he found no better prepared 
than he had been himself. 

And now Washington's artillery was unlimbered, 
and with Washington at its head, the column pressed 
on, and as they went, the report of firearms from the 
other end of the town told that Sullivan had charged. 
His vanguard was headed by Stark, who led on his 
men with his usual headlong gallantry. The Hessian 
outposts were driven in, firing ineffectually and wildly 
from behind the houses as they retreated, 

Rahl, startled from his game, hastened out. The 
Hessian drums were sounding to arms. Everywhere 
rose the cry, " Der feind ! der feind ! heraus ! heraus !"* 
The trumpets called over the uproar. A British officer 
says that so many of the Hessians were away on plun- 
dering parties, and so many busied in caring for their 
plunder, that they could not be collected.f Some 
maintained a wild and aimless fire from the windows, 
others rushed hither and thither, not knowing where to 
go. The dragoons galloped about in disorder. The 
surprise, the confusion, were complete. 

Washington's column advanced to King Street, the 
artillery at its head, and Washington with the artillery 
directing the fire. He was entreated to fall back to a 
safer position, but if he heard, he did not heed. 

«■ The enemy, the enemy ! Turn out, turn out ! 
t Stedman's History of the American War, 



THE BATTLE OE TRENTOK 323 

The enemy were training two cannon across the 
street to keep the Americans back, but young Wash- 
ington and Monroe rushed forward, and took the two 
pieces just as they were on the point of being fired. 
Both officers were slightly wounded. 

The English light horse and five hundred Hessians, 
seeing Washington advancing in their front, and hear- 
ing Stark and his men charging in their rear, fled 
rapidly over the bridge across the Assunpink, and 
reached Donop's encampment in safety. Had Ewing 
been able to obey orders, he would have cut them off", 
but the ice had kept him from crossing the river, 
Rahl, bewildered and probably somewhat confused by 
his night's entertainment, nevertheless acted the part 
of a brave soldier. 

The Lieutenant, whose record Irving quotes, when 
he made his way into the town, found Rahl on horse- 
back trying to rally his men. 

Learning from the Lieutenant the force of the enemy, 
and hearing that the place was about to be surrounded, 
he led his men out of the town into an orchard near 
by. The Colonel doubtless meant to retreat by the 
Princeton road, and might have done so, but he felt it 
intolerable to run away before the despised " ragged 
regiments." Some one urged what a loss would be 
their baggage. Rahl suddenly altered his intention of 
retreating. 

" All who are my grenadiers, follow me !" he cried, 
and rushed back into the town, to the intense vexation 
of the aforesaid lieutenant. 

" What madness was this !" he exclaims. " A town 



324 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SI^. 

that was of no use to us, that but ten or fifteen minutes 
before he had gladly left, filled with three or four 
thousand of the enemy, and a battery of six cannon 
planted on the main street, and he to think of retak- 
ing it with his six or seven hundred men and their 
bayonets !" 

Rahl was gallantly leading on his men, when, 
wounded by a musket ball, he fell from his horse. 
His men, struck with terror, turned to retreat by the 
Princeton road. Hand's rifles were in their path, 
the Virginia troops on their left. They stood still, 
bewildered, and Washington, thinking they had formed 
in order of battle, ordered Forest to fire canister shot. 

" Sir," said Forest, " they have struck !" 

" Struck !" replied Washington, as though he would 
hardly believe that at last he was successful. 

" Yes, sir," replied Forest, " their colors are down." 

" So they are," said Washington. Putting spurs 
to his horse, and followed by his command, he rode 
up to the Hessians, who surrendered at discretion.* 

The firing had now ceased everywhere. Major 
Wilkinson, sent by Sullivan for orders, came up just 
as the unfortunate Rahl, supported by sergeants, was 
in the act of giving up his sword. 

Washington took Wilkinson's hand. " Major Wil- 
kinson," he said with delight, " This is a glorious day 
for our country !" 

* It speaks much for the men of the army, that, though they 
had seen these very Hessians butchering their own people while 
they were asking in vain for quarter, none of the soldiers thought 
of imitating their brutal example. 



THE BATTLE OF TRENTON. 325 

Kalil was carried to the house of a friend, where he 
was kindly attended ; but he was mortally wounded, 
and lived but a few hours. Washington and Greene 
visited him before leaving Trenton, and treated him 
with sympathy and consideration, which he seems to 
have appreciated. He thought of his grenadiers in his 
last hours, and asked that nothing might be taken 
from them but their arms. The promise was made 
and kept. Even the pragmatical Lieutenant seemed to 
relent toward his leader, and to forgive him his want 
of caution and his love of music. 

"Sleep well, dear commander," he writes. "The 
Americans vrill hereafter set up a stone above thy 
grave with this inscription : 

* Here lies the Colonel Eabl, 
With him has ended all.' " 

The Americans lost but two officers and two privates 
killed, and two privates who died of the cold on that 
terrible march. 

The loss of the enemy was thirty-six officers and 
privates, and a thousand men taken prisoners. In 
addition, the Americans took a thousand stand of arms, 
six brass field pieces, twelve drums, and four colors. 
Among the flags was the splendid white silk standard 
of the Anspachers, which, of all possible devices that 
could have been chosen, bore an eagle with an olive 
branch, and the motto " For Prince and for Country" — 
a legend which, considering that their prince had sold 
them to a foreign king, to fight in a foreign country — 
was absurdly inappropriate 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE BATTLE OF PRINCETON. 

WASHINGTON could not remain at Trenton. 
Cadwalader, like Ewing, had been baffled by the 
ice, and Washington had only his twenty-four hundred 
men to oppose to Count Donop's force, which he 
supposed to be below, and the British army near at 
hand. His men were exhausted with their night- 
march and the battle, and had about a thousand 
prisoners to guard. Happily for the Americans, the 
British had a very mistaken idea of their forces, which 
a Hessian journal puts at fifteen thousand men. 
Washington therefore resolved to return over the 
Delaware. The prisoners were conducted to Newtown, 
under the escort of Colonel Weedon, of whose " kind 
and friendly" conduct a Hessian officer speaks grate- 
fully. Considering what the conduct of the Hessians 
had been, they had little right to expect kindness. 

At Newtown, our friend the lieutenant, with four 
other officers, was invited to dine with Washington. 
He thought that Washington did not look like the 
great man he was considered, and that "his eyes 
lacked fire ;" but he allows that when he spoke, " his 
countenance had a smiling expression, which cora- 
jnanded affection and respect." It is quite plain th^t 
(326) 



THE BATTLlE of PRINCETON. 327 

the Lieutenaut's misfortunes had not diminished his 
good opinion of himself. He informed Washington 
that the bad disposition of the Hessian forces was the 
only reason of their defeat. 

Washington asked him if he could have done better, 
and the Lieutenant was good enough to give his cap- 
tor a lesson in the art of war, demonstrating clearly 
that if he had been in command, he "would have 
come out of the affair with honor." He not only ex- 
patiated upon his own merits, but upon the faults of 
his unhappy commander. 

Washington, who must have been much amused by 
this discourse from the very man he had himself sur- 
prised, applauded him highly on the great deeds he 
would have done if he could, and, with mild irony, 
complimented him upon his " watchfulness." 

The Lieutenant thought Washington " cautious and 
polite," but says that he talked little, which we can 
easily credit, as the Hessian, by his own account, seems 
to have had most of the talk, and considering the 
tenor of the conversation, " the sly expression" which 
he detected in the General's countenance is not diffi- 
cult to understand. 

The Hessian prisoners were finally sent to Winches- 
ter, in Virginia. Wherever they went, crowds came 
to look at the terrible Hessians, and were surprised to 
find that they were much like other men. At first 
they were insulted and reviled, especially by the old 
women ; but at last Washington had notices posted up 
everywhere to the effect that the Hessians " had not 
joined in the war of their own free will, but by com- 



328 WASHINGTON AND SEVEVTY-SIX. 

pulsion, and that they should be treated as friends 
rather than enemies." 

The notice had its effect, as " people of all ranks in 
town and country afterward brought them provisions 
and treated them kindly." 

While the battle of Trenton was going on, Colonel 
Griffin, whom Putnam had sent with five hundred 
men, made a pretended attack on Count Donop's 
forces, and succeeded in bringing the whole two thou- 
sand men out of their camp, and in leading them as 
far as Mount Holly, when the Americans disappeared, 
and the Hessians were left to return as they could. 

On the morning of the 26th, Cadwalader heard the 
firing at Trenton, and anxious as were he and his men 
to get across the river, the floating ice made it impos- 
sible. It was not till noon of the 27th that he could 
get over, when he had^ dispatches from Washington 
telling him of the victory at Trenton, and the subse- 
quent return over the Delaware. 

Cadwalader, by the advice of Reed, pushed on to 
Burlington, to obtain intelligence as to whether the 
enemy were still at Mount Holly. They found Bur- 
lington deserted, and learned that Count Donop, as 
soon as he heard of the affair at Trenton, had retreated 
in utter confusion, and that the Burlington troops had 
gone the evening before. 

Reed went on to Bordentown, while Cadwalader 
halted at Burlington. Reed found that the Hessians 
had left Bordentown in such a hurry, that their sick 
were left behind in the hands of those whom they had 
treated with such cruelty. 



THE BATTLE OF PRINCETON. 329 

Cadwalader and Reed wrote to Washington urging 
him to recross the river, follow up his victory, and 
overtake Donop before he joined the forces at Bruns- 
wick or Princeton. 

"Washington was more than ready. He had written 
to the commanders at Morristown to collect all the 
militia they could, to harass the flanks and rear of the 
enemy. Heath was ordered to leave his post in the 
Highlands, and come on as rapidly as possible by the 
Hackensack route, until further orders. 

Men who would be likely to have influence were 
sent in all directions through the State to rouse up the 
people to turn on the enemy. 

" If what they have suffered," said Washington, 
" does not rouse their resentment, they must not possess 
the feelings of humanity." 

On the 29th the troops again began to cross the 
river. Owing to the ice, the passage was difficult and 
slow. Colonel Reed was sent on before with two troops 
of light horse, to attack Donop in the rear, and hold 
him back till other troops should arrive, and a band of 
Cadwalader's riflemen were despatched on the same 
service. The weather was very cold, the roads were 
bad, the American troops were ill-clothed and ill-shod ; 
but the delight they felt in the sudden reversal of the 
parts of flight and retreat carried them on. For days 
these same well-provided mercenaries had followed 
them along this very road, and had marked every mile 
of their route by insult, plunder and outrage. Once, to 
their delight, the riflemen surprised and took prisoners 
a party of Tories, including several newly-made officers. 



330 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

While the light horse and the riflemen were thus 
engaged, Washington was conveying his troops over 
the half-frozen river. 

And now with the end of the year expired the term 
for which some of the best and most experienced troops 
had been enlisted. Those regiments which had been 
used to discipline and to service were indispensable, if 
the success at Trenton was to be followed up, but 
they were exhausted by fatigue and the severity of 
the weather, and anxious for their families at home, 
many of whom were suffering for the actual neces- 
saries of life. 

They were persuaded by Washington to remain 
six weeks longer, and a bounty of ten dollars was 
promised them. 

The military chest, however, was empty. 

Washington sent an express to Robert Morris, of 
Philadelphia : 

" If you could possibly collect but one hundred or 
one hundred and fifty pounds, it would be of service." 

The government credit was not high, and Morris 
was at a loss how to collect the money. Returning 
from his office at a late hour, he met a wealthy mem- 
ber of the Society of Friends, to whom he told his per- 
plexities. 

" Robert," said the Friend " what security can thee 
give?" 

" My note and my honor," said Morris. 

" Thee shall have it," said the other ; and early the 
next morning fifty thousand dollars were sent to Wash- 
ington. On the same day, the 30th of December,Wash- 



THE BATTLE OF PRINCETON. 331 

ington received, through the Committee of Safety in 
Philadelphia, a most important resolution passed by- 
Congress. That extreme jealousy of a standing army 
and of military power by which Washington had been 
constantly hampered, was driven into the background 
by more pressing danger. 

On the 27th, and before Gates could have laid be- 
fore them his plan for a new army across the Susque- 
hanna, the representatives of the States passed a reso- 
lution which in fact invested Washington with the 
powers of a Roman dictator. He was authorized, in 
addition to the forces voted by Congress, to raise six- 
teen battalions of infantry, three thousand light horse, 
and artillery and engineers ; to establish their pay ; 
to displace and appoint all officers under the rank of 
brigadier-general ; to take what was wanted for the 
army at a reasonable price, and to arrest and confine 
disaffected persons. This authority was conferred for 
a period of six months, unless sooner determined by 
Congress. 

" Happy is it for the country," said the letter of the 
committee, " that the General of her forces can be 
entrusted with the most unlimited power, and neither 
personal security, liberty nor property be in the least 
endangered thereby." 

"Instead of thinking myself freed from all civil 
obligations by this mark of confidence," said Washing- 
ton, " I shall constantly bear in mind that as the sword 
was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, 
so it ought to be the first thing laid aside when those 
liberties are firmly established. I shall instantly set 



332 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

about making the most necessary reforms in the army ; 
but it will not be in my power to make so great a pro- 
gress as if I had a little leisure time on my hands." 

Washington, indeed, had little leisure time. He 
had himself crossed the river on the 29th, but it took 
two days longer to convey the soldiers and artillery 
across the icy stream. Time was thus given to the 
British to draw their scattered forces together at 
Princeton. Lord Howe had been waiting quietly in 
New York to move upon Philadelphia, when the ice 
should form. When the news from Jersey reached 
him, his lordship was greatly amazed, " that three old 
established regiments of a people who made war their 
profession should lay down their arms to a ragged and 
undisciplined militia, and that with scarcely any loss 
on either side." 

Lord Cornwallis, who was on the point of going to 
England, was despatched with haste to resume the 
command in the Jerseys. 

Reed, who seems to have been quite reckless of per- 
sonal danger, patrolled the country, even to near 
Princeton, with only six young men of the Philadelphia 
Light Horse. They tried to obtain news of the 
enemy's motions from the people, but they had been 
so harassed and bewildered by the marches to and 
fro, that nothing certain could be discovered. 

Not far from Princeton they saw two or three red 
coats about a barn and house. Spurring up their 
horses, and keeping under cover of the barn as they 
advanced, they surrounded the house unobserved, and 
twelve British dragoons and an officer surrendered 



THE BATTLE OF PRIXCETON. 333 

"without a shot. Reed and the six light horse re- 
turned in high glee with their prize. 

From the prisoners Washington learned that Corn- 
wallis, with fresh troops, had the day before joined 
General Grant at Princeton. They had now seven or 
eight thousand men, and were pressing wagons, in- 
tending to move upon Trenton. Cadwalader, who 
was at Crosswicks, seven miles away, sent the same 
news, which had been brought to him by a young 
gentleman who had escaped from Princeton. Word 
was also brought that Howe had landed at Amboy 
with a thousand light troops, and was on the march. 

Washington felt that his situation was critical. The 
enemy were advancing their pickets closer and closer 
to Trenton. His force was small — too small to make 
a stand in a pitched battle, and yet to retreat over the 
Delaware again, would be to betray the smallness of 
his force to the British, and discourage the spirit in 
the country which the late success had awakened. 
He ordered down Cadwalader and Mifflin, with their 
three thousand six hundred men. It was with reluc- 
tance that he called them into the common danger, for 
it was staking everything on one throw ; but there was 
no alternative. Mifflin and Cadwalader marched all 
night and joined him on the 1st of January. 

Washington, with his main body, was posted on the 
east side of the Assunpink. The stream was crossed 
at its deepest part by a narrow stone bridge, the same 
over which Rahl's men had escaped. The artillery 
was planted so as to command this bridge and the 
fords. The advance guard was stationed about three 



334 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

miles distant, in a wood with a stream called Shabba- 
kong Creek in front. 

On the morning of the 2d came news that Corn- 
wallis and all his force were drawing near. Strong 
parties were sent out under command of Greene, who 
engaged the enemy in skirmishes and harassed them 
as they advanced. By twelve o'clock, however, Corn- 
wallis had reached the Shabbakong and, after halting 
for a time on its northern bank, they moved swiftly 
forward. The advance guard was driven out of the 
woods, and retreated, and the enemy continued their 
march till they reached the high ground opposite the 
town. Here they were ' confronted, as often before, 
by Hand and his rifles, and were delayed for some 
time. 

All the advance parties retreated, however, as 
ordered, on the main body across the Assunpink. 
The bridge was so narrow that the men were greatly 
crowded in passing, and had some difficulty in getting 
over. One of the survivors of the battle remembered 
getting a scratch from Washington's spur as the com- 
mander sat on his white horse at the south end of the 
bridge. 

Cornwallis had been so delayed by " the ragged and 
undisciplined militia," that it was sunset before he 
entered Trenton. 

He formed his troops, and once and again attempted 
to force the bridge, but was repulsed by a well-directed 
fire of artillery. Washington, conspicuous on his 
white horse, kept his position at the south end of the 
bridge, issuing his orders. The enemy then attempted 



THE BA TTLE OF PRTyCETOy. 335 

the fords, but cannon and the deadly rifle fire drove 
them back repeatedly. 

At every repulse, the Americans raised a loud cheer 
of triumph. Cornwallis was persuaded from their con- 
fidence that their forces were much greater than they 
seemed, and at last he drew off his men, who rested on 
their arms and lighted their camp-fires. The Ameri- 
cans also kindled their fires, made of rails from the 
fences. Sir William Erskine urged Cornwallis to 
attack that night. His lordship, however, believed 
that the game was now in his own hands. It was im- 
possible, he thought, that the Americans could escape ; 
but, from what he had seen, he was probably con- 
vinced that the "ragged regiments" would be somewhat 
dangerous when driven to bay. His men were fatigued, 
and he was willing to give them a night's rest. 

" We shall be sure," he said, " to bag the fox in the 
morning." 

The situation was as critical as any in which the 
American cause had ever been placed. The slender 
forces of Washington were parted from a greatly 
superior enemy only by a narrow stream, fordable in 
many places. Eefreshed by a night's rest, and morti- 
fied by their repulses of the day before, the British 
would be driven to exert themselves to the uttermost, 
and so unequal were the numbers,, that success in a 
pitched battle could, as we have said, hardly be ex- 
pected. The Delaware, choked with floating ice, was 
behind, and even could a retreat be eftected, it would 
be almost as fatal to the cause as a defeat. Washing- 
ton called a council of war at the headquarters of 



336 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Mercer, and laid before them a bold expedient. He 
knew that nearly all the enemy had by this time left 
Princeton, and were coming on to Trenton by the 
main road, while their baggage and principal stores 
were under guard at Brunswick. A new road, known 
as the Quaker road, because it led to a Friends' meet- 
ing-house, ran in the same general direction as the 
main road, by which the British, under Leslie, were 
advancing. By a rapid night march, it might be pos- 
sible to pass Leslie undiscovered, fall upon the forces 
left at Princeton, capture or destroy the stores, and 
push on to Brunswick. 

The generals present immediately agreed in this 
plan ; but there was one great difficulty. The weather 
had changed ; the mud was deep, and almost impas- 
sable. In the course of an hour, however, the wind 
whirled about to the north, the weather turned cold, 
and very soon the roads were as hard as iron. 

Silently all the baggage was sent to Burlington, and 
silently all was prepared for a swift march. To de- 
ceive the enemy, men were set to dig trenches within 
hearing of the British sentries, and ordered to keep up 
their work as noisily as might be until daybreak; 
others were to go the rounds, relieve the guards, keep 
up the fires, and preserve the show of a camp. At 
daybreak they were to march and join their friends. 

No doubt these orders were most faithfully carried 
out, for Cornwallis took no alarm, when at dead of 
night the army, Avith its artillery, was drawn out of 
the camp and began its march. One single traitor 
midit have ruined all. 



THE BATTLE OF PRTXCETOX. 337 

Mercer led the van, and the main body followed, 
under AY^shington. The Quaker road joined the main 
road about two miles from Princeton, and Washington 
hoped to reach the junction before day. The Quaker 
road, however, was a mere track cut through the 
woods, and the stumps yet remaining broke some of 
the wheels of the wagons, and delayed the artillery, so 
that it was almost sunrise, on a clear, cold morning, 
when AVashington reached the bridge at Stony Brook, 
three miles from Princeton. He drew up his column 
near the Friends' meeting-house, an old stone building, 
which we believe is still standing. 

Mercer was ordered to lead his brigade along the 
brook until he reached the main road, where he was 
to seize the bridge which it crosses, and destroy it, if 
possible, in order that the British might be met and 
checked in retreat from Princeton or advance from 
Trenton. 

So far the American movements had been undis- 
covered. 

Three regiments and three troops of light horse, 
under Lieutenant-Colonel Mawhood, had been quar- 
tered that night in Princeton, and were preparing to 
join Cornwallis. Colonel Mawhood, with the Seven- 
teenth, was already on the march, and had crossed the 
stream, when, as he was going through the woods, 
from the top of a hill, he saw the shining of arms, as 
Mercer and his men were hurrying forward to secure 
the bridge. 

The w^oods disguised their numbers. Colonel Maw- 
hood concluded instantly that here was some broken 
22 



338 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

troop of the Americans flying before the victorious 
arms of Cornwallis. 

He faced about, and returned to hold them in check, 
sending messengers to hasten up the other regiments, 
that the supposed fugitives might be surrounded. 

It was not till he had recrossed the bridge that he 
saw the van of Mercer's brigade. Both parties hast- 
ened to secure a rising ground near the house of a Mr. 
Clark. The Americans reached it first, and from 
behind a hedge opened a fierce rifle fire. The enemy 
returned it, and at the first discharge Mercer's horse 
was wounded and he dismounted. The British charged 
with the bayonet. The Americans, who had no bayo- 
nets, fell back. Mercer, still on foot, tried to rally them, 
when he was struck down by the butt end of a musket. 
The British, supposing him to be Washington, raised 
a shout of triumph, " The rebel General is taken !" 

Several rushed up to him crying, " Call for quarter, 
you d d rebel !" 

" I am no rebel," retorted Mercer, and though the 
bayonets were at his breast, more brave than wise, he 
struck desperately with his sword. He was bayoneted 
and left for dead. Mawhood followed the Americans 
to the top of the rising ground, near Clark's house, when 
he saw a large force — the Pennsylvanians — emerging 
from the woods. He ceased his pursuit, and, by a dis- 
charge of artillery, checked the advance of the militia. 

At that moment Washington himself came on the 
field. He saw at once the extreme danger of the situa- 
tion. On his white charger he rushed past the ranks 
of the faltering militia, waving his hat and cheering 



THE BATTLE OF PUIXCETON. 339 

them on. Galloping forward under the fire of the 
British battery, he called upon Mercer's disordered 
brigade. The men caught their leader's spirit, and rose 
to the occasion. The wavering lines halted and formed 
in firm array. At that instant the Eighteenth Vir- 
ginia came rapidly forward out of the woods, cheering 
as they came, and a hot fire of grape shot was opened 
by the artillery from a ridge above. Washington, 
whose horse and figure were but too well known, -was 
between the guns of friend and foe. 

His aid. Colonel Fitzgerald, a young Irish gentle- 
man, deeply attached to Washington, losing sight of 
him in the dust and smoke, thought his chief had 
fallen. In despair he dropped the reins on his horse's 
neck and covered his face. 

There w^as a tremendous rattle of musketry, then an 
exultant cheer. Fitzgerald looked up. The British 
were broken and flying, and the smoke clearing away, 
showed Washington still in the front, waving his hat 
and leading on his men. 

Fitzgerald rushed across the field to nis side. 

" Thank God," he cried, " your excellency is safe !" 
And then the soldier, in his joy and relief, sobbed and 
cried like a child. 

" Away, my dear colonel," cried Washington, " and 
bring up the troops. The day is our own."* 

* It is curious to compai-e the story of this battle, as told by 
every one else, with Washington's own account. Its exceeding 
dryness and briefness and want of animation contrast oddly with 
the almost reckless gallantry of his conduct. " Happily, we 
succeeded," is his only expression of triumph. 



340 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Colonel Mawhood, a good and gallant officer, had 
forced his way back, with heavy loss, and was hurrying 
to join Cornwallis. 

The Fifty-fifth British had been met by St. Clair's 
advance guard, and, after a hot contest, was in full 
retreat to Brunswick. Of the Fortieth, part fled to 
Brunswick, and the remainder shut themselves up in 
Princeton College, which they had used as barracks. 
Washington brought up his artillery and fired on the 
building. The first ball passed through a portrait of 
George II. on the chapel wall.* 

Captain Moore, of the Princeton militia, with a few 
men, burst open the door, and the soldiers surrendered. 
The British loss was about five hundred in those who 
were killed, wounded, and taken prisoners. Among 
the mortally wounded was Captain Leslie, sou of the 
Earl of Levin. Dr. Benjamin Rush, who was on 
Washington's stafi*, while a student in Edinburgh, 
had received much kindness from the earl's family. 
He took Captain Leslie under his own care ; but his 
skill was useless, and the young gentleman died that 
same evening. He was buried at Pluckamin next day 
with the honors of war, and his men shed tears as they 
stood around his grave.f 

The Americans lost Colonel Haslet, a Delaware 

* The frame of this portrait is now filled by a picture of Wash- 
ington, painted by Peale, which was bought by money which 
Washington gave the college from his private purse to repair the 
damage done by his guns to the building. 

t Dr. Rush erected a simple monument over Captain Leslie's 
grave as "a mark of esteem for his worth and respect for his 
family." 



THE BATTLE OF PRIXCETON: 341 

officer of high reputation, and, to their great sorrow, 
General Mercer. He had been left for dead on the 
field, but was found by his aid, Major Armstrong, and 
carried to the house of Mr. Clark, w^here he was kindly 
attended. He died on the 12th, after Cornwallis had 
returned to Princeton, but was treated with great 
kindness by the British Commander. Dr. Rush and 
his friend Lewis w^re with him at his death.* 

Washington would gladly have returned for Mercer, 
his old companion in arms, but was assured that he 
could not bear removal. He was called away by the 
duties of his command, and set out at the head of a 
cavalry detachment in pursuit of the British regiments 
retreating towards Brunswick. He longed to follow 
up his victory to Brunswick, where was an immense 
quantity of stores, and the British military chest, worth 
seventy thousand pounds. The capture of the stores 
and the money would have completed his victory, and 
if he had but possessed a few fresh regiments, the 
work might easily have been done. 

As it was, his men were wholly exhausted. All of 
them had been marching all night, and Mifflin's and 
Cadwalader's men had had no sleep for forty-eight 
hours, which had been passed in forced marches and 
hard fighting. They had had no time to take rest or 
food, and many of them were without a blanket to 

* Mercer was born in Scotland, and was present at the battle 
of Culloden. He settled at Fredericksburg, Va., and was de- 
voted heart and soul to the American cause. His body rests in 
Laurel Hill Cemetery, where the St. Andrew's Society of Phila- 
delphia have erected a monument to his memory. 



842 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

cover them. Before they could reach Brunswick, 
Cornwallis would be upon them. 

A hasty council of war was held on horseback, when 
they reached Kingston, three miles northeast of Prince- 
ton, and it was resolved to give over further attack, 
and make for Morristown. Morristown was situated 
in a mountainous country, thickly W'Ooded. The 
neighborhood not having been as much exposed to the 
ravages of the enemy as. other parts of the State, was 
able to feed the army, and there were many defiles 
opening in various directions by whicH they might ad- 
vance or retreat. 

Washington led his men off to the left, and breaking 
down the bridges as he went, took the road by Rocky 
Hill to Pluckamin. The men were so worn out that 
many of them dropped down to sleep on the frozen 
ground, and it required all the exertions of their leader 
to rouse and encourage them to hold out a little 
longer. 

Reaching Pluckamin, he halted for a while, and the 
worn-out soldiers obtained some rest and refreshment. 
He, however, could have spent little time in rest, for 
from Pluckamin, on this same 5th of January, he dates 
a long letter to Congress ; one to Putnam ordering him 
to advance his troops to Crosswicks, and giving him 
news of the battle ; another letter was sent to Heath, 
bidding him, instead of advancing, move down and 
make a demonstration on New York, while Lincoln 
was to come on to Morristown. 

Lord Cornwallis had gone comfortably to bed at 
Trenton, expecting, as he said, " to bag his fox" in the 



THE BATTLE OF PRINCETON. 343 

morning. Great was his surprise when, at daybreak, 
it was discovered that though the fires still burned in 
the American camp, infantry, cavalry, artillery and 
baggage had vanished as if by magic. He was at a 
loss to imagine where they had gone. Presently, how- 
ever, a deep and distant roar was heard which, mid- 
winter as it w^as, Cornwallis took for thunder. 

Erskine, however, who was more on the alert, ex- 
claimed, 

" To arms. General ! Washington has outgeneralled 
us ! To Princeton !" 

Cornwallis instantly divined that the Americans 
were heading for the stores at Brunsw^ick. Immedi- 
ately he broke up his camp, and hurried on the march 
to Princeton. As he came in sight of the bridge at 
Stony Brook, he saw Major Kelly and his men busy in 
its destruction. A discharge of round shot drove them 
away, but the work was done so far as to make the 
bridge impassable for artillery or cavalry. Major 
Kelly, heedless of the balls, continued cutting away at 
the main timbers of the bridge when his men retreated. 
The ruin fell sooner than he expected, and he was 
dashed into the stream. His men supposed that he 
was killed, and hurried away to join their companions. 
Kelly extricated himself from the water, but, half- 
drowned and half-frozen, was made prisoner. Corn- 
wallis did not wait to repair the bridge, but pushed his 
men, breast high, through the deep icy stream, and 
hastened on. 

As he approached Princeton, a thirty-two pound 
cannon, which had been left behind on a low breast- 



844 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

work at tlie entrance of the village, went off with a 
loud roar. His lordship supposed the Americans to 
be in full force, directly before him. He sent out 
horsemen to reconnoitre, while a large detachment 
cautiously approached the solitary giin. By the time 
that Cornwallis had discovered the thirty-two pounder to 
be merely a disconnected fact, a whole hour had passed, 
and Washington and his men were far on their way. 

Cornwallis hurried along the Brunswick road, ex- 
pecting every. moment to seethe Americans before him. 
He reached the town in the evening, and must have 
been relieved to find that the stores and the treasury 
were safe, even though he had been so completely out- 
generalled. 

Cornwallis had broken down several of his baggage 
wagons in his hurried march, and he left them behind 
under a guard of two hundred men. Fifteen or twenty 
of the militia hearing of these wagons, resolved to cap- 
ture them. Ranging themselves in a semicircle among 
the trees, they set up a great hurrahing and shouting, 
and fired rapidly. The British were panic-struck, and 
with a few of the wagons that were still on wheels, 
hurried away to Brunswick. The other wagons and 
their contents fell a prey to the astute militiamen, and, 
to their great joy, were found full of warm woollen 
clothing. 

Washington wrote once more to General Heath to 
move down on New York, hoping by that means to 
withdraw the British from New Jersey. 

This expedition, however, though no loss, was a fail- 
ure. Heath appeared before Fort Independence, and 



THE BATTLE OF PRINCETON. 345 

sent in a most imperative demand for its surrender, 
assuring the garrison that if an answer was not given 
in twenty minutes, they must abide the consequences. 

No notice was taken of the summons, and Heath's 
force was not sufficient to allow him to equal his words 
with deeds. He hovered about the outposts for several 
days, and then retreated. Washington, though he did 
not censure Heath in his letter to Congress, could not 
but say what he thought in a private letter. " Your 
summons," he observes, " as you did nothing to carry 
it out, was not only idle, but farcical, and will not fail 
of turning the laugh exceedingly upon us." 

The situations of Washington and Cornwallis were 
almost reversed ; but on the 9th of January the news 
of Trenton and Princeton had not, of course, reached 
England, and it is amusing to find Burke writing on 
that day that " it is evident the Americans cannot look 
standing armies in the face." 

Cornwallis found himself in a most irksome position. 
The people who had been cheated by his useless " pro- 
tections," and outraged by his mercenaries, were driven 
to fury. Parties of militia hung about his outposts, 
fired on the guards, and harassed every detachment 
sent out of the camp. So beset were his troops, that 
he drew them all into Brunswick and Amboy, in order 
to keep open his communication with New York, 
whence he now drew nearly all his supplies. 

Cornwallis was obliged to humble himself to ask 
whether money and stores could be sent across the 
country to the Hessians taken at Trenton, and to the 
wounded at Princeton a surgeon and medicines. 



346 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

Washington replied that no part of the regular 
army under him would interfere with such a party, 
but added, " I cannot answer for the militia, who are 
resorting to arms in most parts of the State, and who 
are exceedingly exasperated at the treatment they 
have met with from both Hessian and British troops." 

The convoy was given a safe conduct, but the Hes- 
sian sergeant and the twelve men who went with him 
were not allowed to bear arms. 

The Whigs of the State grew more confident and 
bold, and the Tories, who were, if possible, still more 
exasperated at the injuries sustained from their own 
friends, rose up in arms with the Whigs. Many joined 
the camp at Morristown, and others carried on a sort 
of bush-fighting, and skirmished with the enemy 
wherever they were to be found. The militia often 
came off* conquerors in these volunteer fights, and, 
growing bolder by success, harassed Cornwallis by day 
and night. 

Those who had been impatient of Washington's cau- 
tion, who had called him cold, vacillating and unde- 
cided, began to see that under all his prudence and 
reserve there was sufficient fire and enterprise, ready 
for action at the right moment. 

Not only at home, but abroad, Washington's gene- 
ralship excited surprise and admiration. The little 
army and its commander were warmly praised by 
Frederick of Prussia, and in France, where the classic 
mania was at its height, Washington was named the 
American Fabius. The title was more fitly applied than 
were most classical names in those days by the French. 



THE BATTLE OF PRINCETON. 347 

The steady, long-encluring, single-hearted Roman 
and Washington had many points of resemblance, and 
they were especially alike in that they were neither too 
much cast down by ill fortune nor elated by success. 
Both were singularly indifferent to the praise of men, 
and strove rather to serve their country than to win 
popular ap23lause.* 

Putnam, with his troops, now advanced from Cross- 
wicks to Princeton. He drew his forage from near 
Brunswick, to annoy the enemy as much as possible. He 
kept scouting parties on the lookout continually, and 
had nothing with him but light baggage, so that if 
obliged to leave Princeton, he could retreat at a 
moment's warning, and join the main army at Morris- 
town. In obedience to Washington's orders, he gave 
out his force to be twice as great as it was. Captain 
McPherson, a British officer, was at Princeton, dying 
of a wound. He was anxious to see a friend before he 
died, and make his will. 

Putnam sent a flag to bring the comrade of the 
unfortunate gentleman, and not to betray the weakness 
of the American garrison, the officer was brought into 
town after dark. He saw the college windows all 
lighted up and the houses in the village illuminated ; 

* A fragment of the poet Ennius, preserved by Cicero, concern- 
ing Fabius, has often been applied to Washington. The lines 
may be thus freely translated : 

" One who by nobly delaying restored to us our republic ; 
Nor did he place before safety the rumors that flit through 

the people. 
Wherefore now more and more clear shines the fame of the 
hero." 



348 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

and to such purpose did Putnam parade and re-parade 
his little handful of men through the streets and 
around the houses of Princeton, that the officer when 
he went back reported that the Americans were cer- 
tainly five thousand strong. Stations were formed 
between Princeton and the Highlands, on the Hudson, 
where Heath commanded. At one of these stations, 
Somerset Court-house, was General Philemon Dicken- 
son, with the New Jersey militia. 

Cornwallis sent out from Brunswick a foraging 
party of five hundred men. They had with them forty 
wagons, drawn by large English draught horses. They 
had collected sheep and cattle all over the country, 
and were busy on Millstone River plundering a mill 
where there was a great quantity of flour. General 
Dickenson's forces were nearly equal in number, but 
composed of new militia and fifty Philadelphia rifles. 
He charged through the river waist deep at the head 
of his men, and so fierce w-as the onset, that the 
foragers, though they had three field pieces, fled in 
confusion, leaving behind them their wagons, their 
guns, their fine horses, and all their booty. 

Washington did not fail to notice these and similar 
acts of the militia with praise and encouragement. At 
the same time he was severe in repressing and punish- 
ing all excesses and cruelty. 

His order of January 21st, 1777, prohibits "the in- 
famous practice of plundering the inhabitants under 
pretence of their being Tories. It is our business," 
said the order, " to give protection to the poor, dis- 
tressed inhabitants — not to multiply and increase their 



THE BATTLE OF PRINCETON. 349 

calamities." The order further declared that any 
officer or soldier who in future transgressed should be 
severely punished ; and Washington never threatened 
in vain. Kind-hearted as he was, he was too just and 
too faithful to his trust to indulge in that false tender- 
ness which puts in jeopardy the lives and fortunes of 
the innocent only to preserve the guilty, to commit 
new offences against law and humanity. 

The British commissioners had proclaimed amnesty 
to all who should within a given time take the oath of 
allegiance. On the 25th of January, Washington 
issued a counter proclamation. Every one who had 
signed a declaration of allegiance to Great Britain was 
directed, within thirty days, to come to headquarters, 
deliver up the protection papers they had received, 
and take an oath of allegiance to the United States, as 
it had, in the words of the proclamation, "become 
necessary to distinguish between the friends of Ame- 
rica and those of Great Britain." All who preferred 
the interest and protection of Great Britain to the 
freedom and happiness of their country, had thirty 
days to withdraw within the enemy's lines, at the end of 
which time they were to be deemed adherents of Great 
Britain, and treated as enemies of the United States. 
Though this proclamation in no way passed the limit 
of those powers given to Washington by Congress, it 
occasioned no little dissatisfaction. 

Some thought it too bold a measure, others that it 
was an infringement of State rights, and an indication 
of the Commander's wish to become a military despot. 

At this time the smallpox, which was then the 



350 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

scourge of armies, broke out in camp. Vaccination 
had not then come into use, but inoculation was 
largely practised. Houses in the town were set apart 
for those who had been inoculated, and one of the 
churches for those who took the disease in the natural 
way. There was great loss and suffering among the 
latter, and much distress in the town and neighborhood. 

Washington was assiduous in visiting the sufferers, 
stimulating the officers by his example to give their 
personal attendance. 

The position and character of the British and Ame- 
rican armies were strongly contrasted. Howe, in ex- 
cellent quarters in New York, gathered about him a 
gay circle of Tory ladies and gentlemen. While 
Washington and his officers were battling with the 
smallpox at Morristown, and living on the same scant 
rations as their men, the British generals and their 
officers, many of them gay young men of rank and 
fashion, were engaged in a series of balls, fetes and 
dinner-parties, enlivened by music, wine and cards. 
The royalists forgot their troubles, and the " hysterical 
alarms" they had suffered under Lee, They looked 
forward to the coming spring, when they expected to 
witness the entire destruction of the " ragged regi- 
ments," the dispersion of Congress, and the trial, con- 
viction, and perhaps execution, of " Mr. Washington," 
for the Tories seemed to have found an abiding joy in 
refusing to say " general." 

All these things went on while the American pris- 
oners in the hulks and the old sugar-house and the 
churches were suffering, not only from cold and starva- 




The American prisoners. 



p. 350. 



THE BA TTLE OF PRINCETOX. 351 

tion, but from wanton outrage and insult at the hands 
of the brutal provost marshal. 

A sharp correspondence on this matter of the pris- 
oners was exchanged between Howe and Washington, 
Howe denying point blank the stories about the ill 
treatment of the Americans. 

Howe was a man of honor, and doubtless had no in- 
tention of telling a falsehood, but in none of his letters 
does he say that he has himself entered the prisons or 
conversed with the prisoners. " I hear," " I learn," " I 
am satisfied," are the expressions he uses in denial. 
He probably simply questioned the officials who had 
charge of the prisons, and received their report. He 
was an indolent man of luxurious habits, an aristocrat 
and a professional soldier, and, though not inhuman, 
was like most indolent people, careless of sufferings 
which were not close enough under his own eyes to 
make him uncomfortable. 

The abuse of our prisoners has been confirmed by 
scores of witnesses, and for years empty places in 
American homes, ruined health, and lingering death, 
bore but too convincing testimony to the truth of the 
cruelties of which Washington complained. Colonel 
Graydon, who was one of the garrison of Fort Wash- 
ington, and was for some time a prisoner in New York, 
mentions the insolence of the British officers to whose 
custody the Americans were committed. " We were 
again and again taunted as ' cursed rebels,' and assured 
that we should all be hanged." 

" Repeatedly we were paraded, and every now and 
then one and another of us was challenged among our 



352 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

officers as deserters, affecting thereby to consider their 
common men good enough for our subaltern officers."* 

* Graydon belonged to a smart Philadelphia regiment, and ap- 
pears to have been quite unable to distinguish between a man 
and his clothes. As he had been scandalized at the plain dress 
of the hastily-raised light horse, so he was mortified by a little 
militia officer from " York," with " dingy clothes, the worse for 
wear," who, on being asked what was his rank, answered " in a 
chuff and firm tone, " A Keppun, sir." This rej^ly, we are in- 
formed, "produced an immoderate laugh among the haughty 
Britons." 

We confess we should be much puzzled, if called to decide on 
the comparative elegance of " chuff''' and " Kejijnm." We are glad 
to learn, for the honor of " York," that the little militia " kep- 
pun," in spite of his worn clothes, was "chuff" before "the 
haughty Britons," and we have no doubt that he was equally 
"chuff" in battle. The trials of captivity were not enough for 
the unfortunate Colonel Graydon. Even then, his mind " re- 
verts to the moui-nful past," and pictures the trials his gentility 
had suffered at the fashions of New England and New York. 
" In many cases subaltern officers, at least, could hardly be distin- 
guished from their men other than by their cockades. General 
Putnam could be seen riding about in his shirt sleeves," and, 
frightful to relate, " Colonel Putnam, his nephew, did not disdain 
to carry his own piece of meat !" 

We learn, also, that the British officers occasionally extended 
civilities, and gave " genteel entertainments," to certain of the 
Americans, as they, the British officers, valued their personal gen- 
tility too much to seem in any degree deficient in politeness and 
courtesy when they met with those whom they thought sufficiently 
polished to appreciate their demeanor." We confess we rather 
prefer the unpretentious Putnams to those British officers whose 
gentility was graduated to the clothes and pronunciation of those 
they met. The gallant Colonel — for such he was in spite of his 
weakness on the subject of clothes — found some consolation in the 
fact that the American officers who were on parole greatly sur- 
passed the British in the art of skating. 



THE BATTLE OF PRINCETON. 353 

Howe was a professional soldier, the business of 
whose life was war. Washington was a soldier, a mili- 
tary leader only at the call of imperative duty. He 
looked upon war as the last remedy for a nation's dis- 
tress, preferable only to national dishonor and loss of 
liberty. He desired, as he said, " nothing so much as 
to be at home under his own vine and fig tree." And 
for him the parade of war and the exercise of power 
had no charms. He cared for his men as for his fellow- 
countrymen, united to him by love of the common 
cause. 

He did all that could be done for their bodily com- 
fort, and used his utmost endeavors to maintain a high 
tone of feeling and conduct all through the army. As 
he sought God's blessing on the cause himself, so he 
desired his soldiers to look to Heaven for help, and to 
honor at once their flag and their religion, by upright- 
ness in their walk in life. 

" Let vice and immorality be discouraged as much 
as possible in your brigade," he says in his circular to 
his brigader generals, " and, as a chaplain is allowed 
to each regiment, see that the men regularly attend 
divine worship. Gaming of every kind is expressly 
forbidden, as being the foundation of evil, and the 
cause of many a brave and gallant officer's ruin." 

We here conclude this record of Washington s 
earlier life, and of the first years of the war. 

We hope that it may interest our readers so far as 
to lead them to make a further study of their own 
country's history. Those to whom American traditions 
23 



354 WASHINGTON AND SEVENTY-SIX. 

are unknown, who feel no reverence for the memory 
of her faithful dead, cannot have for her institutions 
that love which fits men to be citizens of a free 
country. 

If this volume shall give to any American a clearer 
understanding of Washington's character, a deeper 
reverence for Washington's name, and, through his 
example, a closer love for that God whom he served, 
this book will not have been written in vain. 



Washington's Birthday, 

FehriMry 22, 1876. 



APPENDIX. 



BEADDOCK'S DEATH. 

There is good reason to suppose that Braddock was 
killed by a shot from his own side. Thomas Fausset con- 
fessed to Mr. Day that he did the deed. The two brothers, 
Joseph and Thomas Fausset, were among the provincial 
troops, and when the fighting began, they each took a 
tree, as was the only wise course. Braddock, in a rage, 
rode up to Joseph, and struck him down with his sword, 
on which Thomas raised his rifle and shot Braddock 
through the lungs, partly to avenge his brother and partly, 
as he declared, " to get the general out of the way, and 
thus save the remnant of the army." Fausett was a kind 
of wild man of the woods, and spent most of his time 
hunting on the mountains. He was a man of gigantic 
strength and stature, and peaceably disposed at all times. 
When questioned about the matter, he would sometimes 
burst into tears, and seem greatly distressed, but always 
declared that he was justified in killing Braddock, who 
was sacrificing the whole army to his own obstinacy and 
ignorance. 

Washington himself believed and said that two-thirds 
of the Americans fell victims to the stupidity of the Eng- 
lish regulars, who fired alike at friend and foe. It is no 
wonder that a wild man like Tom Fausset should have 
become exasperated at the sight. 

(355) 



356 ArrENDix. 



WASHINGTON'S RULES. 

Feom the time Washington was thirteen years old, his 
manuscript school-books have been preserved. He had 
then completed the study of arithmetic, and these books 
commence with geometry. All the writing is neat, and the 
geometrical figures drawn with accuracy. There is one 
book of an earlier date, containing thirty folio pages, 
many of which are filled with what he terms " Forms of 
Writing." They are notes of hand, bills of exchange, land 
warrants, deeds, wills, &c., carefully written ; the most im- 
portant words, in large and varied characters, in imitation 
of a clerk's hand. Under the head of " Rules of Behavior in 
Company and Conversation,^^ one hundred and ten are written 
and numbered. A few will serve to show their general 
character, and may be useful to the young reader, as proofs 
of the early diligence of Washington in using every means 
in his power to polish his manners, cherish kind feelings, 
impress upon his memory his duties, and incite to con- 
tinual self-discii^line. 

SELECTIONS FEOM THE RULES. 

" In your apparel be modest, and endeavor to accommo- 
date nature rather than to procure admiration; keep to 
the fashion and habits of your equals, such as are civil 
and orderly with respect to times and places." 

" Play not the peacock, looking everywhere about you 
to see if you be well decked, if your shoes fit well, if your 
stockings sit neatly, and clothes handsomely." 

" Be not curious to know the affairs of others ; neither 
approach to those that speak in private." 

" Come not near the books or writings of any one so as 
to read them, unless desired, nor give your opinion of 



APPENDIX. 357 

them unasked ; also 'ook not nigh when another is writing 
a letter." 

" Read no letters, books, or papers in company , but 
when there is a necessity for doing so, you must ask 
leave." 

" Associate yourself with men of good quality if you 
esteem your own reputation ; for it is better to be alone 
than in bad company." 

" Every action in company ought to be with some sign 
of respect to those present." 

" Be not forward, but friendly and courteous ; the first 
to salute, hear and answer ; and be not pensive when it is 
a time to converse." 

"Think before you speak, pronounce not imperfectly, 
nor bring out your words too hastily, but orderly and dis- 
tinctly." 

" Strive not with your superiors in argument, but always 
submit your judgment to others with modesty." 

" When another speaks, be attentive yourself, and dis- 
turb not the audience." 

" Let your conversation be without malice or envy, for 
it is a sign of a tractable and commendable nature ; and 
in all causes of passion admit reason to govern." 

" In dispute, be not so desirous to overcome as not to 
give liberty to each one to deliver his opinion ; and sub- 
mit to the judgment of the major part, especially if they 
are judges of the dispute." 

" Speak not injurious words, neither in jest nor earnest; 
scoff at none, although they give occasion." 

" Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the disparage- 
ment of any." 

" Be not apt to relate news if you know not the truth 
thereof. In discoursing of things you have heard, name 
not your author always. A secret, discover not. 



S58 APPENDIX. 

" Speak not evil of the absent, for it is unjust." 

" Detract not from others, neither be excessive in com- 
mending." 

" Use no reproachful language against any one, neither 
curse nor revile." 

"Mock not, nor jest at anything of importance." 

"When you deliver a matter, do it without passion, 
and with discretion, however mean the person be you do 
it to." 

'" Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another, 
though he were your enemy." 

" When a man does all he can, though it succeeds not 
well, blame not him that did it." 

" Wherein you reprove another be unblamable yourself; 
for example is more prevalent than precept." 

" Being to advise or reprehend any one, consider whether 
it ought to be in public or in private; presently, or at 
some other time ; in what terms to do it ; and in reproving, 
show no signs of choler, but do it with sweetness and mild- 
ness." 

" Take all admonitions thankfully, in what time or place 
soever given ; but afterwards, not being culpable, take a 
time or place convenient to let him know it that gave 
them." 

" Undertake not what you cannot perform, but be care- 
ful to keep your promise." 

" Honor and obey your natural parents, although they 
be poor." 

" When you speak of God, or His attributes, let it be 
seriously in reverence." 

" Sublime matters treat seriously." 

" Let your recreations be manful, not sinful." 

^^ Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celes- 
tial Jire called consciences^ 



APPENDIX. 359 

Washington vigilantly obeyed this last counsel, and en- 
deavored "to have always a conscience void of offence 
toward God and toward men," Self-discipline, thus early 
commenced and unweariedly persevered in, enabled him 
to control his naturally strong temper and check his 
ardent feelings. And the mildness and propriety of his 
manners, the firm correctness with which he spoke and 
acted on all occasions, evinced that he was influenced 
through life by the code of rules formed in his boyhood ; 
and when a young fatherless nephew was under his care, 
in a letter of advice to him he said, " Your future charac- 
ter and reputation will depend very much, if not entirely, 
upon the habits and manners which you contract in the 
present period of your life. You should therefore be ex- 
tremely cautious how you put yourself into the way of 
imbibing those customs which may tend to corrupt your 
manners or vitiate your heart." 

Excellent as was his code of maxims, the book which 
contains it shows that it was not the highest source from 
which the youthful writer sought aid to form a virtuous 
character ; for there also are transcribed selections of reli- 
gious poetry ; one of which, written on Christmas day, 
commences thus : 

"Assist me, muse divine, to sing the morn 
On which the Saviour of mankind was born." 

The pious feelings which prompted the boy of thirteen 
to employ his pen with this holy theme, induced him in 
early manhood, when, under the English government, he 
commanded a portion of the army, to apply earnestly for 
chaplains to perform divine service regularly, and in his 
orders to desire the officers " to punish severely any man 
whom they should hear swear, or make use of an oath." 
And when he was at the head of the American army, in- 
fluenced by the same feelings, in giving orders to the 



360 APPENDIX. 

commanding officers of each regiment to procure chaplains, 
he directed that they should see that all inferior officers 
and soldiers should pay them suitable respect; and added, 
" The blessing and protection of Heaven ^re at all times 
necessary, but especially so in times of public distress and 
danger. The General hopes and trusts that every officer 
and man will live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, 
defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country." 
After expressing sorrow that the "foolish and wicked 
practice of profane cursing and swearing" had become 
common, and the hope that the officers would, by their 
example as well as influence, check it, he said, "And that 
both they and the men will reflect that we can have little 
hope of the blessing of Heaven on our arms if we insult it 
by our impiety and folly. Added to this, it is a vice so 
mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of 
sense and character detests and despises it." 



19b S2 











**..< 



Ho«, 




^°''*. 







/y0''2^ -» O 



.,*"' .'Ji«J% ^^ 









^1°. 







•n-0* 




■*bv* 



i°-^^. 






L^ 








.0" 



































.^ .' 



...V 



SEP 82 

• MANCHESTEf., 
INDIANA 46962 



^^ mi^^!!!9^5SJER, tewv?a 




